Midnight's Marauders
by evilabed
Summary: 6th year, AU. Voldemort isn't affected by the blood protection powering the wards at Privet Drive. After fleeing for his life, Harry begins to grow into his destiny, rebelling against Dumbledore's attempts to control his fate. Manipulative, non-evil Dumbledore. Remus/Tonks as guardians. Harry/Multi.
1. Midnight Wandering

A/N First I obviously don't own Harry Potter and never will.

To anyone wondering, I've done some fairly major re-writes to the beginning of this story, coinciding with changing the name and will therefore be re-posting the first dozen chapters. I will post each one as I finish checking it for mistakes.

**Chapter 1**

Midnight Wandering

Harry looked at the clock sitting beside his bed. A thin ray of light coming through a crack in the curtains from the street lamp outside threw just enough light over it make out the time, only a few minutes from midnight. Harry was exhausted, yet every time he closed his eyes he was greeted by the same scene. His godfather Sirius laughing, taunting his cousin, before being hit by a jet of red light. His eyes widening in surprise as he fell, seemingly in slow motion. His cousins' scream of triumph as he fell backwards through the Veil.

He tossed and turned, knowing he needed to sleep. He couldn't keep going the way he had been, only getting two or three hours of uneasy sleep a night, only managing to fall asleep when his exhaustion overcame him. It had only been a few days since he had returned to the Dursleys' house for the summer, but it felt like an eternity. His school supplies had been locked in the cupboard underneath the stairs as soon as he had entered the house and he had been put straight to work, doing all the chores his 'family' had neglected while he had been away at school. He had been woken up by his Aunt each day as the sun rose and given a list of chores that kept him working until the sun went down. His only breaks were for a quick breakfast and supper, before heading back to his work. He sighed, 'I suppose it could be worse,' he thought to himself. While he was worked like a house elf and was unable to so much as walk past any of his relatives without a scornful remark, they had yet to lay a finger on him, which was a definite improvement over past summers'. While his uncle and cousin had never done any real damage, he generally had at least a few bruises by this point. He supposed he should have thanked Moody for that in his letter.

Rolling over, Harry looked at Hedwigs' cage and sighed, wishing his familiar was still there. He had sent her off to report that he was still alive and well (at least relatively) and that there was no need for anyone to come by and murder his relatives' (yet). That had been close to two hours ago, right after he had come inside. After a long day of hard work and snide comments he had decided to go right to bed, so he had sent his owl off immediately with a few letters to let both the Order and his two best friends know he was alright, before crashing onto his bed and trying to fall asleep. He regretted that decision now as he stared at the ceiling, wishing for someone he could talk to or at least something to do to keep his mind occupied.

Throwing off the blankets, Harry stood quietly, deciding he needed to get out of the house for a little bit. Dressing quickly, he quietly made his way out of his room and down the stairs, carefully avoiding the creaky step. Pausing at the door to the cupboard under the stairs, he pulled out the hairpin that he had borrowed from Hermione before school had ended and set to work trying to open it. It took him a few minutes, but he eventually managed to get the lock open. 'It's a good thing I got Fred and George to teach me that,' he thought to himself, 'I don't think even Dudley could sleep through me breaking the door down.' Opening the door he quickly pulled out his trunk, careful not to make any noise as he did. Opening it up, he cautiously moved things around looking for his wand. Finding it, he quickly stuffed it into his pocket and went to close the trunk to replace it in the cupboard, when he noticed a silvery material poking out along the side. He hesitated for a moment before carefully sliding it out as well. 'Better safe than sorry' he thought to himself, before quietly replacing his trunk in the cupboard and leaving through the front door.

Harry left Privet Drive and turned onto Magnolia Crescent, heading past the alley where he had first seen his godfather. Blinking tears from his eyes and banishing the memory of the first time he had seen his godfather from his thoughts, he headed towards the nearby park. Jumping the locked gate, Harry walked past the broken swings, the last of which had apparently been broken by Dudleys' gang since his last visit, and sat on the ground, leaning back against a nearby tree.

Sitting quietly lost in his thoughts, Harry almost didn't notice the sound of someone walking slowly along the path, cautiously as if trying not to be heard. Without moving his head, he looked in front of him, scanning for something out of place when he heard it again. Casually stretching his shoulders, he managed to reach into his pocket and grasp the handle of his wand without looking suspicious. He had almost managed to draw it out of pocket when the night seemed to ripple in front of him, and the empty path was replaced with a young witch with long brown hair and a heart shaped face. Jumping up from his spot against the tree Harry aimed his wand directly at her.

"Wotcher Harry," she said, slowly putting her hands in the air, "mind aiming that someplace else?"

"Tonks? What are you doing here?" Harry started lowering his wand before quickly re-centering it on her, "How do I know you're really you?" he asked, gazing at her suspiciously.

"I'm your protection detail Harry. You didn't think we'd let you head back to your relatives' without someone watching you, did you? If you don't believe me, you can always ask me something only I would know."

"Alright then," he said thinking for a moment. He was surprised, he hadn't thought that someone from the Order would be watching him. "When we first met, what was Mad-Eye worried about me doing and why?"

"If I remember correctly, he was worried about you putting your wand in your pocket," she said, "he didn't want you to blow off one of your butt checks." Suddenly smiling, she added, "I gotta say Harry, I was pretty worried too. You have quite a nice bum, I wouldn't want you to lose it."

Harry lowered his wand, his face getting hot. He opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out. 'How the hell am I supposed to respond to that?', he thought. At least it proved that this really was Tonks. One of her favorite games was to try to make him blush, it was a game that she happened to be very good at. Seeing the smile on her face he decided it would be better to move on and ignore it. Sitting back down on the ground against the tree, he asked, "What's up with the hair? It's so... normal."

She grimaced, looking down at him before turning and sitting beside him. "I'm just tired. You know, there's been a lot going on lately," she said, evasively. Harry looked at her skeptically. He remembered a few times last year when she had gone days at a time with little to no sleep and the only time the crazy haircolours had disappeared was when she needed to blend in. Tonks continued, "With You-Know-Who out in the open I've been working overtime, with both the Order and the Aurors. Both of them are trying to prepare for open war and catch some of his more dangerous supporters. I've been put on the task force to find my aunt."

He looked at her questioningly for a moment before remembering. Her aunt was Bellatrix Lestrange, Sirius' cousin. The woman that had killed him. Once again the image of Sirius falling backwards swam in front of his eyes. Shaking his head, he banished the images, fighting back the tears that came with it.

"I'm sorry Harry," she said quietly, looking at the ground between them. She had tears of her own swimming in her eyes. "It's my fault. I should have stopped her."

Harry was quiet for a second, confused, before he remembered that Tonks had been fighting Bellatrix before Sirius. He remembered seeing her fall limply down the seats in the Veil room as Sirius took up the duel with his cousin. Harry couldn't believe he had been so stupid. He had been so caught up in his own grief over Sirius that he had forgotten there were others that cared for him too. Reaching over he gripped her shoulder, "It's alright Tonks, you did everything you could. If I hadn't run off without thinking.." Harry felt a tear fall down his cheek. He had felt bad enough to begin with. It was HIS fault Sirius had died. His fault that he would never live to see his name cleared, or go out in public again. Now he also had the guilt of taking the only wizarding relative Tonks had that wasn't a bloodthirsty murderer. It was his fault that Remus had lost the last of his friends for the second time. He couldn't believe he had been so foolish. And now his godfather was dead. He felt arms snake around him, comforting him, as the first of his tears fell.

"Harry, you can't blame yourself, you were tricked by You-Know-Who. Many wizards, older and wiser than you, have fallen the same way. He knows how to get to people, who to threaten to hurt you the most. You went to help Sirius because you thought he needed you and because you cared for him."

"But if I had practiced Occlumency, like Dumbledore wanted, he wouldn't have been able to put those images in my head," Harry bowed his head to hide the tears that were running down his face, "If I had kept my curiosity to myself, Snape would have kept teaching me and maybe I would have learned to block him out."

"Dumbledore had you learning Occlumency? From Snape?" Tonks asked, a surprised look on her face, "Since when?"

"Since Christmas, when I had the vision of Voldemort's snake attacking Mr. Weasley. We started once I got back to Hogwarts. Before each lesson he would pull some thoughts out of his mind and place them into a Pensieve. One time he left early and I got curious and looked inside. He refused to teach me anymore after that," Harry wept, ashamed of himself, "If I hadn't let my curiosity get the better of me, Sirius would still be alive.

"Was he teaching you Legilimency as well?" she asked.

"No," Harry answered, unsure as to why that mattered.

"Then why was he pulling memories out and putting them in a pensieve?"

Harry shrugged, "They were things he didn't want me to see, memories of my dad bullying him while they were at school."

Tonks looked confused, "But why would he put them in a pensieve? Snape is a master Occlumens, it's why he can get away with spying. There was no reason for him to put those memories in a Pensieve, he could have easily stopped you from seeing anything he didn't want you to. I mean he can keep Dumbledore and You-Know-Who out of his head, he has no reason to hide things from a fifteen year old. It just doesn't make sense."

"I don't see why it matters, it's not like he did it to..." Harry trailed of as the puzzle pieces clicked into place, "You don't think he meant for me to see those memories, do you?"

Tonks shrugged, "I don't know Harry, but I don't see any other reason for him to leave them laying around like that."

"But why would he do that? Snape isn't exactly the type to let people see his embarrassing moments, especially not a Potter."

"I don't know Harry..." Tonks said, running her hand through hair, "The only thing I can think of is that he was trying to come up with a reason to stop teaching you."

"Maybe..." Harry trailed off before shrugging his shoulders, "It's not like I actually learned anything from the lessons he gave me anyways. He just told me to clear my mind and then attacked. If anything the visions were worse after our lessons."

"He didn't teach you how to organize and hide your thoughts or how to raise barriers?" Tonks asked, a surprised look on her face.

"No," Harry said slowly, "he basically told me what Occlumency was, told me to clear my mind and then started smashing his way in." Looking at Tonks, Harry got the impression that she hadn't expected that. "If anything I think he was just trying to weaken my mind to make it easier for Voldemort to break in."

She looked at him for a minute before she spoke, "I don't know Harry," she said, "he could just be as bad at teaching Occlumeny as he is at teaching Potions. He may have even known his teaching was weakening your mind and set up the pensieve as an excuse to stop teaching you without breaking his cover."

Harry nodded, seeing Tonks' logic. If Voldemort knew Snape's teaching was weakening him, he probably would have tortured him for stopping their lessons without cause. "And if not?" he asked.

Tonks looked at him hesitantly, "If not... The other possiblity is that he really is a Death Eater and was trying his best to weaken your mind and used the excuse to stop teaching you before you could fix the damage."

Harry looked at her in surprise. He was used to all the Order members blindly following Dumbledore's proclamation that Snape was on their side and refusing to believe the old man could be fooled. "You actually think Snape might be a Death Eater?"

Tonks bit her lip, seemingly unsure of herself, "I don't know Harry. His attitude would fit in perfectly with all of You-Know-Who's followers, but Dumbledore trusts him."

Harry grimaced, "Dumbledore isn't all knowing Tonks, he can make mistakes the same as anyone else," he said, thinking back over the past year. All it would have taken would have been a simple warning, 'Voldemort may try to use the bond to lure you to the Hall of Prophecies,' or 'Voldemort can probably send fake vision's through the bond, so don't believe everything you see,' and Sirius would still be alive.

"He's still our leader Harry," Tonks replied, prompting a snort from Harry, "Dumbledore trusts Snape and without some airtight proof, I don't think we'll change his mind. The best thing we can do for now is keep our eyes open."

"I just wish the old bastard had told me what was going on from the beginning, then maybe none of this would have happened."

"I know how you feel Harry, I've can't help thinking that if I could have beaten her, Sirius would still be here."

"Don't blame yourself for that Tonks. If it wasn't for you and the others, I wouldn't be here and neither would Ron or Hermione or any of the others that I brought with me in my ill-conceived rescue attempt. You saved my life Tonks, more importantly you saved my friends lives and I'll never be able to thank you enough for that."

She hugged him tightly, "Thank you Harry," she whispered into his ear, "you have no idea how much better that makes me feel," before she moved to his side, leaving one arm wrapped around his back and leaning into him.

They sat leaning on each other for a while, telling stories about Sirius, both from the time they knew him and those they had heard from others. During their talk Tonks began feeling better, eventually gaining enough control over her metamorphosing abilities to change her hair back to it's (ir)regular color. She looked over at Harry and saw him nodding off, half asleep, a smile coming to her face. He had definitely needed this, probably even more than she did if the dark circles under his eyes were any indication. Glancing down at her watch she noticed the time, it was half past two in the morning. Glancing at the teenager next to her she decided it was probably time to head back. A night sleeping on the ground probably wasn't the best idea for either of them.

"Come on sleepyhead," she whispered into his ear, prodding him in the side and getting up off the ground, "it's getting late and you should be in bed."

"Do I have to?" he groaned, not opening his eyes, "I'm comfy here."

"Come on, you might be comfortable now, but you won't be in the morning. To bed with you," she said reaching down and pulling on his arm. He groaned again, but opened his eyes and let her pull him up. He had only managed a couple steps before he suddenly sunk to his knees, his hand clasped to his forehead.

"Harry!" Tonks exclaimed, rushing to grab him before he could fall over onto the ground, "Harry, are you ok?" His only response was to let out a low moan. She gently lowered him onto the ground, she pulled out her wand and started waving it over top of him, casting diagnostic spells, desperately trying to figure out what was the matter with him. Finding nothing she starting speaking, "Harry please talk to me, say something," she begged, hoping he was okay. Sirius had told her about his visions, but she had never seen one before. She had crouched over him for what felt like an eternity before finally deciding it was time to go for help. She made to stand up so she could Apparate to get some help, when a hand suddenly grasped her wrist. "Harry!" she exclaimed, pulling him into a sitting position, " are you alright?"

Harry looked at her like he was going to respond, but stopped with his mouth halfway open, staring over her shoulder. Fearing what she was about to see, Tonks turned and felt her gaze drawn upwards into the clouds above Privet Drive. She couldn't help but stare, because among the clouds over Privet Drive, hung a green skull with a serpent coming from its mouth.


	2. Escape From Little Whinging

**Chapter 2**

Escape from Little Whinging

Voldemort was furious that his plan to kill Harry Potter had failed. He had it on good authority that Dumbledore intended to leave the boy with his relatives' for at least a month to recharge the blood wards surrounding the house, but the boy was nowhere to be found. He had been so pleased when he had been informed that the boy would be returning his relatives, protected only by a single guard and Dumbledore's precious blood wards. The muggle loving fool hadn't realized that the power that fueled the blood wards was useless now that the same blood ran through his veins. While his followers may not be able to come within a mile of the house, there was nothing preventing him from paying the Potter boy a visit himself.

After the failure at the Ministry he had taken a few days to recover and formulate a plan. He had decided that if everyone knew of his return, he may as well take care of their so-called 'Chosen One'. Finding the house hadn't been difficult, but had required some time as only a small handful of wizards knew where the boy lived, all of them followers of the old muggle-loving fool. But he was nothing if not clever and, with a little encouragement, it had only taken a muggle detective a few days to find that the Dursleys lived at Number 4 Privet Drive in Little Whinging, Surrey. Voldemort had then spent the last few hours setting up the large anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards to prevent the boys escape and prevent any from coming to his aid. He had put in all that time and effort, only to find that his efforts were in vain, the boy was no longer in the house.

He looked down at the broken man at his feet, bleeding and barely conscious, his limbs sticking out at odd angles. 'How did such a pathetic whale think so highly of himself?' he asked himself. After arriving to find the boy missing, Voldemort had woken the family to find where the boy had gone. The fat Muggle on the ground in front of him had started shouting at him, yelling about freaks and unnaturalness. The nerve of the the Muggle to speak that way to one of his betters. It seemed he had learned his lesson though, as he lay on the floor, a broken mess. It had been some time since he had attempted to insult Voldemort, though that likely had something to do with his missing tongue. No, this quivering mass of filth would never insult his betters again. Looking back up at the other two people in the room he smiled. The boy was trying to push himself into the corner in an attempt to avoid his notice. The woman was trying to shield him with her body and failing miserably. The boy was at least five times her width. Tears stained both of their faces as they tried to look at anything other than their husband and father.

"Now, will you tell me where the boy has gone or will I have to get angry?" he asked, smiling at the fear in their eyes and the whimper coming from the whale in the corner. He already knew they didn't have any idea where the boy had gone, he doubted they even knew when he had left, but it had been a long time since he had truly been able to enjoy himself, so he decided he would savor this. He had found the evidence himself of a hasty getaway. An unlocked door, the cupboard holding the boys wizardly possessions left partially open, missing only his wand, his broom and his cloak of invisibility. The perfect tools for a hasty getaway.

"We told you," Petunia managed to sob, "the boy was in his room when we went to sleep, he hasn't left the house since he arrived. We don't know anything, please let us – AAHHHHH!" her speech cut off by the sudden screams that always accompany that Cruciatus Curse. It was too bad really. If they had been able to provide information he might have killed them quickly.

"Come now, you must have some knowledge of the boy," he said, ending the curse, "he has lived here since he was a child. You don't expect me to believe you know nothing, do you?" Of course he did believe her. The fat man had folded seconds after the torture had begun and attempted to give up the boy, giving him all their very limited knowledge about him. It was all useless. They considered him to be beneath their knowledge, worthy only of their scorn. It surprised him to find that they reminded him of some of the more cruel children at the orphanage where he had grown up. Knowing who had placed the boy here, he smiled. It seemed the old adage was true, you really couldn't teach old dogs new tricks.

He returned his attention to the situation at hand as the woman begged for her families lives. He always found it more entertaining when people thought they might be allowed to live, if only they could please him. Begging, pleading, telling him all of their dirty little secrets, just for the hope, the prayer that he may let them live. That rarely happened of course, only if he had a use for them, and these muggles were as useless as they came. Not even good as bait, as by all accounts Potter hated them. The boy may be willing to run into danger to save his friends,but he would never risk himself to save these worthless sacks of flesh. No, their only worth now was as a momentary entertainment for him. He aimed his wand at the boy now.

"NO PLEASE!, not my Dudie-" the rest of her shout cut of as she flew across the room, slamming into the wall before coming to rest on the floor.

"What about you, boy? Do you know where your cousin is?"

The boy opened his mouth as if to respond, but the only thing that escaped was a low whine, as he seemed to be trying to will himself through the wall.

"No, nothing? Well you can't complain that I didn't give you the opportunity," he smiled before uttering one more word, "Crucio!" Voldemort held the boy under the curse for a full minute, reveling in his screams and in the thrashing of his arms and legs. When he stopped, the boy continued to twitch on the ground, a low gurgling coming from his throat. His mother, still lying on the opposite side of the room, sobbed as she tried to push herself over to her son.

Smiling he looked around the room. It had been too long. The year he had taken to gather his forces had been necessary, but it had also been tremendously boring. There truly was nothing like taking out your frustrations on a group of helpless muggles, he thought to himself. Deciding he had everything he was likely to get out of them, he turned to leave. It was time for the wizarding world to relearn the fear that had gripped it fifteen years ago. He pressed one of his long fingers to the tattoo on his forearm, sending his followers the message to start their attack. His new reign of terror would begin tonight. Stopping as he exited, he turned back, letting three quick jets of green light escape his wand.

OoOoO

Tonks tore her gaze away from the sky at the sounds of retching behind her. Harry was on all fours now, emptying the contents of his stomach. Wand in hand, Tonks surveyed the area around them before helping Harry to his feet. He seemed unsteady, like he was having a hard time making it to his feet. It was lucky she already had a hand on his arm because he attempted to start walking towards the house.

"No Harry," she said, pulling him back towards her, "I'm sorry, but it's too late. If the Mark is there they are either dead or it's a trap, or maybe both." Harry stopped trying to pull away, though his gaze was still fixed on the sky above Privet Drive. He mumbled something Tonks couldn't make out.

"Come on Harry," she urged trying to pull him the other direction, "we need to get out of here. There could be more of them. They might even be looking for us." That did the trick. With one last look at the sky over Privet Drive, Harry turned and began following her in the opposite direction. "Come on, I'll Apparate us out of here."

"No!" he exclaimed, his eyes focusing, he pulled his arm from her grasp before she could try to take them away, "he set up anti-apparition wards."

"How can you tell?" she asked, confused.

"I.. I had a vision... I saw the whole thing.."

Tonks gasped, putting her hand to her mouth. She couldn't imagine what he must have just gone through, watching his only relatives murder from the ground only a few streets away. "Harry I'm so sorry," she said looking at him. His eyes were slowly coming back into focus, but she could see a haunted look in them. She had seen it in other Aurors after coming into a particularly gruesome scene, had felt it herself. He suddenly shook himself, his attention fully returned to the outside world.

"We need to get out of here, he called his followers to start attacking right before I woke up."

Tonks looked at him horrified for a second before her Auror training kicked in. "We should get as far away as possible and then Apparate somewhere safe."

"Tonks, I don't know how to Apparate."

"That's alright Harry, I can take you side-along. We just need to get farther away, out from underneath their anti-apparition wards. I don't want to bounce off and give away our position. Now here, put this on and stay quiet," Tonks said pushing Moody's extra invisibility cloak into his hands.

He pushed it back towards her, "No Tonks, you put this-".

She interrupted him, "Don't be a bloody white knight, it's you they're after. Besides I'm the trained Aur-" she said cutting herself off as he pulled his own bundle of silvery material from under his shirt. She stared at him for a moment in disbelief. "You have your own invisibility cloak?"

"Yeah it was my dad's, its been in the family for ages," he replied. "Come on, we should get moving," he said as she started to say something else. Pulling her cloak over her head she heard Harry whisper, "How am I supposed to follow you if we're both invisible?" he asked.

"Take my hand," Tonks whispered, as he pulled his own cloak over his head. After a second she saw another hand appear out of nowhere grasping hers. She quickly covered both, overlapping their cloaks over their clasped hands. "Alright, try to be quiet, we don't know who could be out there," she whispered, setting off in the direction opposite the house.

It was slow going, trying not to make any noise, while also listening for anything out of the ordinary. They made it three streets before they heard the first explosions signifying the start of the Death Eater attack. They could see the flames start to brighten the night sky to their right. Turning onto a main boulevard they caught their first sight of the Death Eaters. There were half a dozen walking down each side of the boulevard, casting explosive and flaming curses at every house they passed. People were running out of their homes, either to escape the flames, or to see what was causing all the noise. Each of them was struck down without pause.

Harry felt sick to his stomach again, but luckily he'd already expelled his meager supper in the park. Following Tonks' lead, they quietly moved down the boulevard, between the two groups of Deaths Eaters. Harry longed to help them, but was stopped by the firm grasp Tonks held on his wand hand. When he tried to pull it away from her she hissed at him, "Don't be stupid, there are too many of them." Confining his gaze to the center of the street, Harry followed along behind Tonks, trying to get to the edge of wards. After passing by the Death Eaters Harry pulled Tonks down a street to their left, "Come on, this way. That street loops back closer to the Dursleys'."

The street they turned down was dark. There were few light posts here, and it didn't seem like the Death Eaters had come this way yet. They quickly made their way down the street, only pulling up short at the sound of voices. Two large shapes were outlined in the darkness not far away, whispering to each other. Staying silent they made to creep by.

"We would have seen them if they had been a Muggle," said the first.

"Not if they went into one of the houses," argued the second. "if Potter or one of those blood-traitors had been near, the Dark Lord would have killed them."

"Maybe he didn't see them," replied the first, "Gregory told me that Potter has some way to avoid being seen. Lucius' son thinks he must have an Invisibility Cloak."

Harry recognized the two now. It was Crabbe and Goyle Sr, and apparently at least one of them wasn't as dimwitted as their sons.

"Alright then, how do you expect to catch him?" asked Crabbe Sr.

"I'm thinking, there's some sort of spell to reveal hidden people..." replied Goyle Sr. "ah ha, got it, _Homenum Revelio._"

The spell caught Harry by surprise. Crabbe and Goyle Sr. definitely weren't as dimwitted as their sons. Harry barely recovered in time to dive out of the way as two purple sreaks of light shot through the space where he had been standing. He rolled out of his dive, his cloak slipping off as he did and pointing his wand at the closer of the two shouted "Stupefy!" The Death Eater in question shielded easily while his partner returned fire with another dark curse. Harry side stepped this one, not knowing if his shield would be able to defend against it and returned an impedimenta jinx. Another burst of light came from Harry's left towards the Death Eaters. The two spells hit one after the other, the second one breaking through the shield to smash into the large Death Eaters face. Goyle Sr. flew backwards screaming and holding both hands up to his face, leaving only the one Death Eater for them to deal with. Harry saw Tonks pull off her own invisibility cloak out of the corner of his eye, shooting off a volley of spells towards the remaining Death Eater. Harry joined in quickly, putting him on the defensive. Unable to hold against the two person assault, Crabbe threw himself to the side, pushing his finger into the tattoo on his left forearm, before being hit by a stunner from each of his assailants.

Harry threw a hand to his forehead as it exploded in pain. The pain faded after a couple of seconds for him to realize he was on his knees, Tonks hovering over him asking if he was alright. He reached down quickly grabbing his invisibility cloak in the hand holding his wand and grabbing Tonks' wrist in his other hand, he pulled her along at a sprint.

"Harry, what happened?" Tonks asked, pulling to free herself from his grasp.

"He's coming," he managed in between breaths, urging Tonks to run faster. She needed no more motivation and picked up her pace, pulling even with him. They raced down the street side by side as the pain in Harry's scar increased. He could see Tonks at his side, wand moving through the air, repeatedly muttering words under her breath, "Come on, come on."

Harry looked back just in time to see the first spell shoot past him. There about a hundred meters behind them Voldemort flew above the street. His bottom half seemed to be made of smoke and he was gaining on them fast. Harry yelled "Protego" blocking the second spell and dodged without breaking his sprint around the third. He managed to summon a street sign just in time to block a familiar green light from striking Tonks. Looking back again he saw that Voldemort had gained on them, now only fifty meters separating them. They only had seconds before he would be right on top of them. Harry saw him wave his wand, an brownish orange jet of light shooting towards him. He bent his legs to dive out of the way, when he felt a hand land on his shoulder and the sudden sensation of being sucked through a small tube.


	3. Chez Tonks

**Chapter 3**

Chez Tonks

The next thing he knew his feet hit the ground and he fell over, his legs collapsing underneath him. Struggling to regain his feet Harry looked around and noticed they were no longer in the street, but in a small flat.

"Merlin, that was close," came a voice from the ground beside him. Looking down Harry saw Tonks laying on her back, one hand over her eyes, trying to catch her breath. Her face broke into a grin, "Never a dull moment, eh Harry?"

"I don't know what you're smiling about," he responded looking down at her in disbelief and shaking his head, "We were about three seconds from being killed."

"Oh come on Harry," she said, taking her hand off her eyes and looking up at him, "fighting Death Eaters, running from You-Know-Who, what's life without a little excitement?"

He couldn't help but smile at her. Trust Tonks to make light of anything, she was almost as bad as the twins. 'Well,' he thought to himself, 'maybe she's right. We both made it out in one piece, I suppose I should be thankful.' He reached down and grabbed her hand pulling her to her feet. She came up easily but immediately overbalanced, tripping over her own feet and knocked them both over, landing on top of him. She looked at him before picking herself off of him. "Merlin Harry, you must not know your own strength," she said laughing before reaching down and offering her own hand to help pull him up.

"Either that or you have the coordination of a three year old," he shot back, proving his point by pulling her down beside him breaking into his own laughter.

"Oh, you're going to pay for that Potter," she said, mock glaring at him, before the smile returned to her face. Quickly grabbing her wand from the floor, she pointed it at him. "_Rictusempra._"

Harry collapsed halfway to his feet in giggles, "Not fair," he managed in between bouts of laughter, "Stop Tonks, please, I give up, you win," he gasped, finally catching his breath as she released the spell, he sat up and looked around the room. They were in the kitchen of what seemed to be a small flat. There didn't seem to be much there, only a few cabinets, a small icebox, a stove and a small table in the corner. On the other side of the flat was the living room, which consisted of a coffee table, an old lumpy looking sofa, a few uncomfortable looking chairs and a fireplace in the corner. On the far wall were two doors, probably for the bedroom and bathroom. "Where are we?" he asked.

Tonks jumped to her feet, pulling him up with her and this time both managing to stay standing. "It's my flat in London. I know it isn't much to look at, but at least it should be safe. I just moved in, so no one else knows where it is, we should be safe for now." Tonks' smile dropped from her face. "We need to tell Dumbledore and the Order that you're okay. They're probably worried sick right now."

"Is your Floo set up yet? Let's just Floo to Grimmauld Place, everyone will be gathering there, won't they?" Harry asked, heading towards the fireplace along the wall.

"It is, but we can't go to headquarters yet, it's been on lockdown since Sirius died," Tonks said, hesitantly.

"Oh," replied Harry, his previous levity gone now, "well then what do we do?"

"I'll Floo Dumbledore, let him know what happened. He'll probably want to talk to you." Harry grimaced at her words, having no urge to speak to the headmaster. Tonks appearing not to notice, headed towards the fireplace, and grabbed a handful of powder of the mantel, before throwing it in and bending over to stick her head into it. Harry stared at her for a minute, before looking away feeling guilty. 'She just saved my life, I really shouldn't be staring at her bum,' he thought to himself. He waited, occasionally glancing over at her, as she stood like that for a few minutes before pulling her head out, followed shortly by the headmaster. He had a grim look on his face that eased slightly when he saw Harry standing unharmed in front of him. Once the headmaster had entered the flat Tonks turned back to the fireplace, "I'd better go check in, make yourselves at home," and throwing another handful of powder into the fireplace, Flooed to Auror headquarters.

"Harry, I'm glad you made it out. I was worried when the wards over your Aunt's house fell, I thought the worst had happened."

"I took a walk to clear my head, I was at the park with Tonks when he attacked. I had a vision of him torturing the Dursleys' just before we were about to go back, then we saw the Dark Mark. They were already dead, so we ran for it."

Dumbledore nodded at him, "That was smart Harry, I know it must have been hard for you to run knowing others were in danger, but it would have just given Voldemort exactly what he wanted."

Harry didn't respond, only looking at his feet feeling guilty. It hadn't been difficult for him to run at all. He had made a couple steps to return to the Dursleys' after his vision, but all it had taken was a hand on his shoulder and a couple words from Tonks for him to turn the other way. He hadn't even gave it a second thought until now.

Seeing the obvious look of guilt, Dumbledore tried to clear his conscious, "Look at me Harry. This wasn't your fault. Voldemort is the one that is responsible for this attack and I was responsible for keeping you and your relatives safe. This is not your burden to bear, but mine and I hope you will allow me to do so."

"Professor, what happened, how did Voldemort get into the house?" Harry asked looking at him.

"I'm not certain Harry, the blood wards should have kept out anyone that meant to harm you or your relatives," Dumbledore replied, stroking his beard in thought.

"Were the blood wards the only protections?" he asked, curious as to how Dumbledore had supposedly been protecting him for all these years.

"Yes Harry, other than Ms. Tonks, the blood wards were the only protection around Privet Drive. The power involved with maintaining the blood wards would disrupt any other wards present."

"So the only thing protecting me was a set of wards based on a protection that no longer affects him? He took my blood for his reincarnation so that my mother's sacrifice wouldn't affect him anymore. He proved it by touching my face in the graveyard, remember?"

Dumbledore's jaw dropped in shock. He had been racking his brain, trying to think of some detail he had overlooked that could have lead to the wards failing, but he had never considered that their failure wasn't even necessary for the Dark Lord to stroll in like he owned the place. If Harry hadn't left the house for a midnight walk, he would be dead right now and their only hope for defeating Voldemort with him.

Dumbledore felt his mind return to the present and looked at Harry, who stood was watching him, one eyebrow raised in a questioning expression, "I'm sorry, my boy. I didn't consider the fact that the protections over your Aunt's house would be ineffective against Voldemort. I'm just glad that you managed to escape yet again Harry and that no harm came to you."

"But what about all the Muggles? While Tonks and I were escaping we passed groups of Death Eaters destroying houses and cursing anyone that tried to leave. What about all the harm that is coming to them?"

Dumbledore sighed and slumped his shoulders, an air of defeat surrounding him, "I'm sorry Harry, there is nothing you can do for them right now. The Ministry began arriving just before I received your message, they will push the Death Eaters back and take care of any innocents they find."

"But-"

"But nothing Harry. It is too dangerous for you to return. If I had to guess I would say that nearly every Death Eater is out there right now, searching for you."

Harry nodded, reluctantly agreeing, "Speaking of Death Eaters, I ran into Crabbe Sr. tonight. Wasn't he arrested after the battle in the Department of Mysteries?" he asked.

Dumbledore rubbed his eyes, sighing deeply, "I suppose you haven't been taking the Daily Prophet? No, after the past year of course you haven't. All the Death Eaters that were captured during the battle at the ministry escaped."

"WHAT? HOW?" yelled Harry, absolutely furious.

"After the battle, Minister Fudge could not believe that his foremost adviser was a Death Eater. He assumed that Lucius Malfoy was once again under the Imperius Curse and released him from the Ministry holding cells."

"And that bumbling moron is still in power?" Harry was fuming mad. He couldn't believe how such an idiot had been put in charge of a country.

"No Harry, Mr. Fudge is no longer the Minister of Magic. Lucius murdered him as soon as he had his wand and proceeded to release the rest of his captured fellows. They murdered another three guards during their escape."

Harry mouth dropped open in shock. He was relieved, though he immediately felt guilty about feeling that way. Fudge hadn't deserved to die, but with him out of the way, at least they could replace him with someone competent.

Dumbledore looked at his watch, "Now Harry, I must be going, but first there is something I need your help with. With Sirius' passing, Grimmauld Place has been locked down and the Order is without a headquarters. Sirius has named you his heir, but until the reading of his will, we can not be sure whether or not the deed has truly passed on to you as he wished."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"Well Harry, if the house has been passed to you, the house-elf will have been passed to you as well. Just call Kreacher and give him an order. If you are his master now, he will have no choice but to obey."

Harry grimaced, he didn't want to be Kreacher's master, that rat was partially responsible for Sirius' death. "Kreacher" he called out. With a pop the house elf appeared beside him, ranting and raving.

"Will not serve a no good, half blooded..."

"Shut your mouth Kreacher," he snarled, the bond forcing the elf's mouth shut, "and keep it shut. In fact you are not to speak or communicate with anyone without my direct orders. You will return to Grimmauld Place, you will open it for the Order, you will stay out of sight and not interfere with anything they do." Kreacher glared at him for a moment, obviously trying to think of a way around those orders, before disappearing with a pop. Harry looked over at the headmaster, "There that should keep him from causing any more harm. Was that all there was to it Professor?"

"Yes Harry, that will be all for now, though I think you may have been overly harsh with him. When I have reset the wards at headquarters I will return and inform you." Turning Dumbledore strode to the fireplace.

Harry scowled at the headmaster. If anything he thought he was being lenient with the house-elf. His first instinct had been to tell him to go place his head on a stick like the rest of his relatives. As he noticed Dumbledore walking away a thought occurred to him, "Hang on Headmaster," Dumbledore turned back to look at Harry, "there is a catch. For using Grimmauld Place that is."

A stern expression appeared on Dumbledore's face, "And what would that be Harry?"

Harry gathered his courage. He knew it wouldn't be easy to get Dumbledore to agree, but he needed information and this was his best chance, "If you intend to use my house as headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix, I want to join."

Dumbledore shook his head, "I'm sorry Harry, but to join the Order you must be of age and finished school. Those are two requirements I will not ignore," he said, turning back to the fire.

"I wasn't asking Professor," Harry said, attempting to sound more confident than he felt. Even he wasn't sure whether or not he was bluffing, but he needed to know what was going on. He couldn't afford to have the incident at the Ministry repeat itself. "I'm a part of this war whether you like it or not. Things happen around me, whether or not I try to avoid them. Knowing might help me avoid another trap." Harry looked at Dumbledore with tears burning in his eyes, "Knowing might have saved Sirius."

Dumbledore looked thoughtfully at Harry over his shoulder and took a deep breath, "I will consider it Harry. Take care and try to get some rest." With that he stepped into the flames and vanished from sight.

Harry's shoulders slumped in relief, he had assumed Dumbledore would just ignore him, but maybe he would actually consider it. If not he could always follow through with his threat.

Harry yawned. With the headmaster gone, he suddenly realized just how tired he was. It had been an extremely long night, after a number of long days. After relieving himself in the washroom, he looked around the flat for a second time. Not wanting to steal Tonks' bed, he made his way over to the sofa and lay down, placing his glasses and wand on the coffee table. Grabbing a blanket that was draped off the back of the couch, he wiggled around, trying to find a spot with fewer lumps in it. After a few restless minutes he managed to drift off into a restless sleep.

OoOoO

Harry woke up disoriented to the sound of a large thud. He jumped for his wand, but got tangled in his blanket and ended up falling off the side of the couch. Scrambling for his wand and glasses, he stopped at the sound of a familiar laugh.

"And you say I'm the clumsy one," came the sound from the other side of the room. Finally managing to untangle himself from his blanket, Harry managed to reach up and grab his glasses from the table beside him before pushing them onto his face. The room came into focus, along with the pink-haired Auror laying on the opposite side of the room clutching her ribs.

Harry felt his face grow hot, "Yeah, well at least I'm not the only one laying on the ground right now," he mumbled pushing himself back up onto the couch.

"Ah touche Harry, it seems we make quite the pair," Tonks pushed herself off the ground, grabbing the bag in front of her. "I brought some breakfast if you're hungry. I wasn't sure whether you'd be awake, or if you'd even still be here, but I grabbed enough for two." Harry's stomach answered for him, prompting another laugh from Tonks, "Come on sleepyhead, have something to eat and then we can both go have a nap."

Harry made his way over to the little table, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he went. He looked down at his watch to check the time, forgetting like usual that it was still broken. "What time is it?" he asked, yawning widely.

"Half past seven," she replied, pulling their breakfast from the bag and placing it on some plates she levitated out of one of the cupboards, "I figured I'd stop and pick up something to eat on the way back. My kitchen doesn't exactly have much to work with."

"Big surprise there," Harry smirked, "Sirius always joked that you could burn water."

"Well Sirius told me you knew how to cook, so it's lucky I have you here then isn't it," she looked at him smiling sweetly. Harry chuckled softly before digging into his breakfast. He really had been hungry. Three days of hard work with little food could really do a number on ones appetite. When Harry had finished most of his breakfast, he looked up at Tonks. Now that he was actually paying attention he could see the circles under her eyes. She was pushing the food around her plate, uninterested in eating. He felt his appetite vanish as memories of the previous night came crashing down. "So how bad was it?" Harry asked, looking down.

Tonks stopped what she was doing, and looked at him. She could see the hurt on his face. She knew he must be blaming himself for all the people that had been hurt last night. She sighed, "Pretty bad Harry, though I suppose it could have been worse. It was only Death Eaters, no dementors or giants or anything like that, thank Merlin, but they had more than twenty minutes before the first Aurors even began showing up. Half the neighborhood was either rubble or on fire. Your relatives' house... You-Know-Who didn't leave anything standing. They're all gone, I'm so sorry."

"You should call him Voldemort," Harry whispered, noticing her flinch at the name, "you're brave enough to fight him against him, you escaped from him last night, you should be able to say his name." He was sickened by the torture Voldemort had put his relatives through, but he just couldn't be sad at their deaths. They had spent so much time and effort making his life miserable that he just couldn't help it. He did however feel terrible about all the other innocent Muggles that had been murdered last night. Murdered in a war they didn't even know existed. Harry looked back up at Tonks sitting across from him, "Thanks for telling me the truth and not hiding things from me, it means a lot to me."

"You're welcome Harry," she said picking up their plates and putting them in the sink before heading towards her bedroom, "now you look exhausted, I think we could both do with a nap." Tonks paused at the door, looking back as Harry stood up and made his way to the couch. "No Harry, come on, that couch is uncomfortable enough to sit on, you'll never get a decent sleep."

Harry looked up at Tonks before laying down and trying to get somewhat comfortable, "I'll be fine, I've dealt with worse. Besides you look even more tired then me, I'm not going to steal your bed."

"Steal my bed? There's enough room for both of us Harry, we're going to share it."

Harry bolted upright, he could feel his face heating up, "Uh, Tonks I... you know, umm..." he mumbled, trying to think up what to say. Tonks just laughed at him.

"Oh Harry, not like that," she said, a big smile now plastered back on her face, "my bed has more than enough room for both of us and it's really the only comfortable place I have."

Harry could still feel the heat rushing through his face. Unable to look Tonks in the eye, Harry looked at the floor under her feet, trying to will the embarrassment away from himself. "Uh, sure Tonks, if, uh,that's what you want," he managed to stammer out. He managed to take a quick peek at her face seeing a slightly confused grin.

"What's the problem Harry, never share a bed with a girl before?" she teased.

"Er... actually, no, I haven't," Harry replied hesitantly.

"Really?" she asked, sounding unconvinced, "I would have thought girls would have been throwing themselves at you. Hero, athlete, you're even kinda cute." Harry felt his skin grow even redder, if that were possible, "Oh, don't be embarrassed Harry, there's nothing to be ashamed of. Now come on, I promise I don't bite. Unless you're into that sort of thing." With another laugh Tonks turned and went into the bedroom. Harry followed slowly, hesitating at the door. "Come on Harry, don't worry," she said beckoning him into the room from under the covers. He approached the bed and pulled back the covers on the other side. He was about to get in when Tonks stopped him, "Do you normally sleep wearing jeans Harry?" He shook his head from side to side. "Well, I didn't think so. Now off with them and hop in, I feel like I could sleep for days." He did as she said before sliding into bed, taking off his glasses and placing them onto the table beside him. "Goodnight Harry," she said before turning over and quickly drifting off to sleep.

"Goodnight Tonks," Harry whispered quietly, unsure of himself. He lay there and looked at Tonks for a minute. He considered moving back out onto the couch now that she was asleep, but he didn't think Tonks would be very happy with him when she woke up. Besides, the bed _was_ much softer than that couch. He yawned and felt his eyes droop down as he quickly drifted to sleep.


	4. A Night Out

**Chapter 4**

A Night Out

Harry awoke feeling better than he had in weeks. Unwilling to move from his current position, Harry lay comfortably, taking in the light shining against his closed eyelids and the soft warmth curled against him. He lay there for what seemed like an eternity, enjoying the warm comfort, before slowly opening his eyes. The first thing he noticed was the mass of pink laying just in front of his face.

Harry froze, shutting his eyes again and trying to remember the previous night. As his brain started to re-engage he took in his surroundings. Tonks lay pressed up against him, still sleeping. He felt himself stir a bit as Tonks moved in her sleep, pushing her rear into him, but he pushed down those feelings. 'She's going to be mad enough as it is,' he thought to himself, 'I think It would probably be safer to go another round with Voldemort rather than have her wake up to me stabbing her in the back.' Managing to control himself, Harry continued to take stock of his current situation. He turned his attention to his hands, 'Alright, one under her head, that should be fine and the other... I'm so dead,' he thought to himself as he realized his right hand was currently reached around Tonks and cupped over her breast. Slowly, hardly daring to breath Harry loosened his grip and started moving his hand away, only to be stopped by Tonks as she grabbed it in her sleep. 'Yup, I'm definitely screwed here,' Harry thought to himself, 'How in Merlin's name am I going to explain this?' Thinking quickly, he searched, desperate for a way out of his current predicament, but his thoughts were interrupted.

"So Potter," Tonks said, turning over quickly to glare at him with a dangerous look in her eye, "what exactly do you think you're doing?"

Harry mind was running at a mile a minute, searching for some explanation that didn't end with him being hexed, "Tonks, I, uh, I was, umm..." he said, trailing off.

"You what Harry, thought you'd cop a feel while I was sleeping?"

"Tonks I'm so sorry," he said unable to pull away, due to the grip she still had on his hand, "I didn't mean to, I swear. I just woke up a minute ago and was trying to move away without waking you, it was an accident, you know I would never do that to you on purpose, right?" He was rambling, but he didn't care at the moment.

"Oh is that it Potter? What am I not attractive enough for the famous Boy-Who-Lived?" Harry could only stammer as she changed her form, "Does this one meet your standards oh Chosen One? How about this one?"

"That- that's not what I meant Tonks. It's just we're- we're friends and I- I didn't think that you were... you know..." he trailed off, watching her closely, hoping she would believe him. He gulped hard as he took in her livid expression, only to watch in confusion as a smile broke her stern mask. Before he could figure out what was going on she burst out laughing.

"Oh Harry," Tonks finally managed, wiping a tear from her eye as the worst of her laughter died down, "you should have seen the look on your face. Priceless." She burst into another fit of giggles.

"So, you're not mad?" he asked, hesitantly.

"Mad? Oh Harry, how could I be mad, you look like a scared little puppy. Besides I set you up," she said trying to calm herself down, "I woke up fifteen minutes ago and couldn't help myself, I had to see how you would react. I can't say I'm disappointed, that was far more entertaining than I ever could have hoped for."

His mouth hung open, "So, you mean you-"

"Yup," she said smiling, "after your little confession last night I thought I should help you get a little more comfortable around the fairer sex and all that. Getting a laugh out of it was just an added bonus."

"This was supposed to make me more comfortable?" He choked out, wincing as his voice came out in a sort of high pitched yelp.

"Well of course," she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "to have any luck with girls, you need to learn to deal with embarrassment. After this, any other situation you run into should be small potatoes," she said before breaking into another fit of laughter.

Harry's mouth moved, but no sound came out as he stared at her in shock. He supposed he couldn't fault her on that logic as he didn't think it was humanly possible to be more embarrassed than he was right now. At the very least he desperately hoped he would never have to find out. Reaching over to his side of the bed he grabbed his glasses before looking at the clock to see that it was just after two. He turned back to Tonks, "So, what are the plans for today?" he asked, hoping to change the subject.

She gave him a look to show that she was aware of what he was doing, "Well, all of your clothes except the ones you wore here are gone. They were destroyed with the rest of your things, so I figure we need to go get you some new ones. Before that I'm thinking we'll probably go get something to eat, as I still don't have any food in the house."

"Really? And here I was worried that I would be under house arrest," Tonks looked down with a guilty expression on her face. Harry looked at her for a moment before realizing why causing a smile to cross his face, "I _am_ supposed to be under house arrest aren't I?"

Tonks looked back up at him, wearing a mischievous smile, "Well I was just told to watch over you. Dumbledore never said _where_ I was supposed to watch over you."

Harry was touched that she would brave Dumbledore's wrath for him, "Thanks Tonks, this means a lot to me. I'm so sick of being cooped up, it's almost as bad as being in prison. We'll have to go to Gringotts though, I didn't bring my money with me when I left the house."

Tonks shook her head, "We can't go to Gringotts Harry, in fact we'll be avoiding the wizarding world entirely. You'll have to replace your other possessions later, when we can have a few more guards to go to the alley. For today we are just going to buy you some new clothes and I'll take care of the bill," Tonks said, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed and standing up.

"Tonks, I can't let you do that," he said, somewhat uncomfortably as he tried to look away from her with a blush, noticing that he wasn't only one that went to bed not wearing pants, "I'll just wait until I can go to the bank, I'm sure it won't be to long."

"Harry don't be silly, we can't have you wearing those," she said, pointing to his rather large and ragged clothing, "until we can head to the Alley. I have more than enough money to buy you some clothes," she looked at him and sighed, noticing how uncomfortable he was, "but if it really makes you feel better, you can pay me back later. Just consider it a loan."

Harry looked up at her uncertain, "Well, alright I guess, if you insist."

"That I do Harry. Now how about we shower and I'll throw together some disguises and we'll head out. Now would you like to go first or second?"

"Second is fine Tonks," he said leaning back into his pillow, "just wake me up again when you're done."

It wasn't long before they were both showered and almost ready to go. Tonks had changed her face and her hair to a dirty blond, before turning to Harry and starting to work. She placed a glamour on his forehead, hiding his scar and changed his hair color to a light brown. "Hmm..." she said, looking at him, "not bad, but the hair is still a little bit of a giveaway." She waved her wand over him again causing an odd feeling to come from the top of his head. He looked in the mirror to find that his hair now reached his chin. "Well would you look at that," she said, looking approvingly at her work, "apparently the trademark Potter bedhead goes away if you grow it out enough."

He took a good look at himself in the mirror, shocked at the difference he saw. With his scar covered up, and his hair both long and brown he hardly even recognized himself. Tonks took another look at him before pulling the glasses off his face and giving them a tap with her wand. They grew and subtly changed shape, no longer looking like they belonged to a child. He put them back on and smiled. No one would recognize him now. He could walk right past Ron and Hermione and they probably wouldn't look at him twice. He turned to look at Tonks and said as much, prompting her to put an arm around his shoulders and give him a squeeze in return.

"Well then, I suppose we should get going. You ready?" she asked. He nodded, holding on to her as she turned in place. The sensation of being drawn through a tube returned, though slightly less uncomfortable than the first time, before they found themselves in an alley. "Well come on then Harry," she said pulling him out of the alley and down the street before turning into a small cafe a couple blocks away. They had a quick bite to hold them over until supper before leaving to find Harry some clothes that fit.

Tonks pulled him into shop after shop and forced him to try on all sorts of clothes. Harry took it with as much grace as he could muster, but couldn't help blushing whenever Tonks would make him step out and model for her, usually with comments such as, "Oh, those pants sure make your bum look nice," or "That shirt definitely shows off your arms." He knew she was just trying to tease him, but by the time they had put together a basic wardrobe he felt as if his face would be permanently flushed. Leaving the last store, Tonks grabbed Harry's arm, pulling him into an alleyway before Apparating back to her flat.

Harry threw down the bags that were weighing down his arms and fell backwards onto the sofa. Turning his head to Tonks he said, "I don't know how girls enjoy shopping, that was exhausting."

Tonks looked at him with a smile on her face, "What isn't to enjoy? We get all sorts of pretty new things. Now up you get, we're going back out again as soon as you change."

"Again?" Harry groaned, "What else could I possibly need?"

"New glasses for one, though I think we'll wait and get those in the Alley. We're going out for dinner in case you forgot, unless you'd rather have stale bread and mustard for supper," Tonks replied, digging through the bags of his new purchases.

"Hey, I've had these glasses since I was seven, what's wrong with them?"

"Well if you were still seven years old, I would say nothing. You're about to turn sixteen Harry, they're old and too small for your face," she said while pulling some of the nicer clothes he had bought out of the bags and handing them to him, "Here, now put these on in the bathroom. I'm going to go change as well. I feel like going somewhere nice," she said before disappearing into her room to change. He groaned but did as he was told.

Harry walked into the bathroom and pulled the door closed behind him before pulling off all the tags and changing. With one last look in the mirror he walked out of the bathroom with his old clothes in hand. Tonks walked out of her room at the same time and Harry couldn't help but stare. He'd always thought Tonks was pretty, as long as she avoided the animal noses, but right now she was completely stunning. She had kept the blonde hair she had from their shopping trip and put on a tight blue dress, giving a hint of what lay beneath. Harry swallowed hard, "Ah, you- you look great Tonks," he managed to stammer out. 'Smooth Potter,' he thought to himself, 'now she probably thinks you're hitting on her.'

Tonks just smiled, "Thanks Harry, you clean up pretty nicely yourself," she said while looking him up and down. "Are you ready to go?"

"Almost, I just need to know where I should put my old clothes," he replied gesturing to the bundle in his hand.

"Here, I'll take care of those," she said, quickly throwing them in the fireplace and setting them on fire with a quick incendio.

Harry stared at her for a moment before smiling. He had always hated Dudley's hand-me-downs that he'd been forced to wear. Harry grabbed her offered hand and quickly found himself in another alley, different than the one they had left not too long ago. Tonks quickly pulled him out onto the sidewalk, hurrying past people walking in the opposite direction. They had only walked a few blocks before she pulled him into a building. Harry looked around for a minute as his eyes adjusted to the dim light. It was a nice place, full of couples smiling and talking over their dinners. A waiter came over briefly before leading them to a table in the corner.

After the waiter left Harry couldn't help but look around. To think, yesterday he had been stuck in Privet Drive and now-. His memories of the previous day came crashing down on him once again, wiping the smile off his face. To think, here he was enjoying himself, when less than 24 hours before people had died because of him. Because they had the misfortune of living near him. Tonks saw the look on his face and reached across the table to grab his hand. "Harry, what's the matter? You're at a fancy restaurant with a pretty girl, you should be on top of the world right now."

He couldn't look at her so he kept his eyes on the table instead. "Sorry Tonks, it's just... People are dead and it's my fault. Yet here I am having a good time. I just-"

Tonks cut him off, "Harry I told you, it isn't your fault. You-Know-Who is the one that murdered your relatives and the Death Eaters are the ones that killed the rest, blame them."

"I know that, it's just that if I hadn't lived there-"

"He would have just murdered the people close to wherever you did happen to live."

"But if I had been there-"

"Then you would have died with them. Harry look at me," she said in a demanding voice. Harry looked up slowly. "You had no control over what happened. You did the best you could. Feeling guilty won't accomplish anything, especially since it isn't your fault." She looked into his eyes and softened her tone, "It's okay to feel sad, but you can't let this get to you, that's what he wants."

Harry nodded at her, knowing she was right. If it hadn't been Little Whinging, Voldemort would have attacked somewhere else. Nowhere was safe until he was stopped. Until Harry stopped him. He noticed the waiter coming back towards them.

"Are you ready to order?" he asked.

Harry made his order, before Tonks did the same, and added a bottle of wine. The waiter returned quickly, placing the bottle on the table before disappearing again. Harry looked up at Tonks, "Tonks, I was wondering if you could do me a favor."

"Oh, you mean besides rescuing you from You-Know-Who?" she said, a smile on her face showing she was teasing him in an effort to lighten the mood.

He decided to play along, "I'm not sure I do know who, but if you mean Voldemort," Tonks managed to contain her flinch this time as she'd obviously expected it, "to be fair, that was right after I saved you, so I figure we're even."

"And after I bought you a whole new wardrobe and took you to such a snazzy restaurant?" she asked, still trying to ruffle him.

But Harry wasn't going to let her get to him that easy, "After you told me I didn't have a choice in the matter. Besides I'm going to pay you back."

"Well then, what about after I let you get to second base for the first time," her smile widening as she saw that she had finally managed to trip him up. Harry felt his face go red as she continued, "Of course, I enjoyed that almost as much as you did, so I guess it wasn't really a favor. Has anyone ever told you that you have strong hands Harry?" Harry felt his mouth move up and down, but once again no sound came out. He could only stare at Tonks as she threw her head back and laughed, "Oh boy, you look like a fish out of water. It's almost as funny as the one this morning," she managed through gasps for breath. Harry clamped his mouth shut as Tonks continued laughing for a full minute before finally calming down. She looked back up at him taking a deep breath, "Sorry Harry, I had to, it was too perfect. Now what sort of favor did you need?"

Harry looked at her confused for a moment before remembering. Between the embarrassment of being reminded of this morning, along with the pleasant memory that had come with it, Harry had forgotten what he was going to ask her. "Well," he said after a moment, "when we were in the park it sounded like you knew what proper Occlumency training should be like. I was wondering if you could teach me, along with anything you learned during auror training. I know I can't do magic right now, but there has to be some things I can work on over the summer."

She looked at him surprised, wondering why he would come to her of all people for help. "Harry, I'm really not sure I'm the best person to be teaching you," she said hesitantly.

"Please Tonks," he pleaded, "I don't have anyone else I can turn to. Dumbledore ignores me, Snape couldn't care less what happens to me, most of the others would rather throw me into a padded cage until I come of age. You're the only person I know that will help me learn to protect myself."

Tonks looked at him for a moment before responding, "I don't know Harry," she said hesitantly before seeing the disappointment on his face, "Alright, I'll help as much as I can."

"Thanks Tonks," he said, just as their waiter returned with their food.

Tonks noticed their bottle of wine and uncorked it, filling both their glasses, "Take it easy with the wine Harry, I expect you don't have much experience drinking."

"None actually," he said smiling again, suddenly cheerful, "but I suppose there is no better time to learn than the present."

OoOoO

They ate slowly, avoiding talk about the war. It was significantly later when they pulled themselves away from the table, feeling full, light headed and generally much more content. Tonks grinned to herself as she felt him throw his arm around her, stumbling as they headed towards the door. As soon as they left the restaurant she felt him fall against her, "Sorry Tonksie, sidewalk moved on me. Since when do Muggle sidewalks move?" he asked, in a slurring obviously drunk voice.

She laughed at him as she dragged him towards a nearby alley, "Come on, let's get you to bed." As they reached the alley she looked over at him, "Are you ready Harry?"

"'M always ready," he slurred. She shook her head and held on tightly to his arm before disappearing from the alley and reappearing in her living room. Tonks felt him tear his arm away as he made a mad sprint to the bathroom. She laughed softly to herself as the sound of him emptying his stomach greeted her. While he was definitely in for some pain in the morning, for a change it was a pain common to someone his age. Harry wasn't able to act like a teenager very often, so she was glad she had been able to help him do so, even just for one night. He stumbled out of the bathroom a few minutes later, "Sorry Tonksie, that chicken must have been bad. We should go back and complain," he mumbled, staggering as the world seemed to shift of it's own accord.

"Maybe tomorrow Harry," she replied, holding back a laugh, "come on, let's get you to bed." She gripped his arm and gently pulled him into the bedroom. She helped him into some of his new pajamas and then into bed, before making her way to the other side of the bed. Looking back at Harry, she opened her mouth to tell him to face the other way so that she could change, only to find him snoring softly. Chuckling to herself, she changed and hopped under the covers opposite him before quickly falling asleep.

OoOoO

Harry woke up early to a pounding headache and someone gently shaking him. He tried to pull away and bury himself in his pillow, but whoever had been shaking him refused to let up. He groaned and rolled over, intending to rid himself of whoever was bothering him and return to the sweet caress of sleep, when he felt himself suddenly being thrown off the bed onto the floor. "I said up you get Harry,"

Harry groaned again, opening his eyes to find Tonks leaning over the edge of the bed to smile sweetly at him. "What was that for?" he asked sleepily, trying to shade his eyes from the sunlight streaming in through the open window.

"You were taking too long," she stated matter of factly, "we need to get moving if we're going to get started today." With that she jumped off the bed and began trying to pull him up. Harry was confused for a moment, trying to figure out what it was that they were going to get started today before it clicked in his head. He recalled their conversation from the night before when she had said she would help him learn to protect himself. He let her pull him up, but had to stop and put his hand to his head as the entire room seemed to spin. She smiled at him again, handing him a vial filled with a oily greenish-gray potion, "Here drink this, it will make you feel better."

Harry stared at the potion in his hand for a moment grimacing, before closing his eyes and downing it in one gulp. It tasted even worse than it looked, if that were even possible he thought, almost gagging as he forced the potion down his throat. He coughed a few times before handing the empty vial back to Tonks. "Yuck, that was disgusting," he said, even as the room stopped its slow spin and his headache began to recede, "though it seems to be working, so I guess I shouldn't complain. Thanks Tonks."

"No problem Harry," she replied, sighing wistfully as she reminisced on old times, "I still remember my first time drinking. I would have killed for one of those potions. I usually keep a couple around now just in case, though the taste does tend to get worse the longer they sit," she smirked at him, but he just shook his head in response. As bad as it was, he would take the potion over the headache any day. "Now I have to go to work in a couple hours, so I figured we should get started now. You said you wanted full auror training, or at least as much as you can do without getting in trouble for underage magic, right?" Harry nodded his head. He wanted to learn anything that would help him survive in a fight or help protect his friends. Tonks continued, "Alright then, the first thing you're going to need to do is run."

Harry felt his mood drop, "Are you trying to tell me I shouldn't be getting in fights Tonks? Trust me, I've tried that, it doesn't work," he went to move past her, unable to contain his anger, but was stopped by a hand on his chest. She had said she would help him. He shouldn't have believed her, she was just like everyone else, treating him like a child that couldn't take care of himself. Hadn't he proved that he was capable? He had escaped Voldemort yet again, for the fifth time since he had started school, and yet no one thought he should be taught how to defend himself properly.

"No Harry, I'm telling you the first part of your training is going for a run," she said, trying to calm him down, "endurance is an important part of fighting, so we are going to start by working on that." That stopped him in his tracks. It seemed he had been wrong, she was taking him seriously. He opened his mouth to apologize but she stopped him, "No Harry, don't worry about it, I probably should have phrased that better. I know you think everyone treats you like a child and I didn't think of how it would sound. Now go put on some work out clothes and we'll get going." He opened his mouth to try to apologize anyway, but stopped as she gave him a stern look and pointed to the bathroom.

It didn't take long for him to find some clothes suitable for a workout from the things he had bought yesterday and he changed in the bathroom into a blue t-shirt and pair of loose gray shorts. He looked into the mirror to find his hair the same length it had been the previous night. When he was done, he walked into the kitchen and took a seat by the door to wait for Tonks. He let his mind wander, wondering what else she might teach him when he was interrupted by her voice. "Are you ready to go Harry?"

He looked up in surprise, having not heard her leave her room and felt his mouth go dry. Tonks was standing in front of him with the same hair and face that she had worn the day before, wearing a tight pink tank top and an even tighter pair of black shorts. He stared at her for a moment, before nodding, not trusting himself to talk at the moment. Tonks grinned at him, "What's the matter Harry, cat got your tongue?"

He swallowed hard, trying and failing to stop himself from flushing red, "Uh, yeah I'm ready Tonks, just need you to change my hair color and cover up the scar."

Harry had no idea where she pulled her wand from, but she tapped it twice on his head and had it back in it's place before he could think too hard about it, before turning to the door and leading him out. Harry followed her, trying to keep his eyes from drifting down to her backside as they made their way out into the sunlight.

Their run lasted almost half an hour, with Tonks setting the pace. He had kept up until the last five minutes, when he had started to lag behind. While he hated slowing her down, there were definite benefits to following behind her, he thought. They slowed to a walk a few blocks away, stopping at a small grocery store to cool down and pick up some things for breakfast. When they got back to the flat Tonks began showing him the stretches that she normally did after a workout, smiling and watching his face grow red as he watched her. 'Merlin,' he thought to himself, 'at this rate Voldemort won't have a chance to kill me, I'm likely to die from embarrassment before he gets another chance.' After they were done stretching, Tonks went to shower to get ready for work, while Harry started cooking breakfast. He had just about finished when she came out of the bathroom. "Breakfast will be ready in a minute," he said.

Tonks thanked him quickly, before disappearing into her room to change. She came back out shortly after, fully dressed and carrying a book. She sat down at the table, pushing the book across at him as he pushed a plate back at her. "So, the next item on our agenda is going to be your Occlumency training," she said. Pointing to the book she continued, "This is the book I was given to learn Occlumency. It explains the fundamentals of how to organize your mind and erect your barriers. You should start reading it while I'm gone and if you have time start organizing your mind."

They ate in silence, Harry read the book she had given him, while Tonks was busy trying to eat quickly. He had just finished the summary when Tonks stood up.

"I need to go or I'll be late, try not to work too hard," she waved before disappearing into the fireplace, leaving Harry alone. After cleaning the kitchen, taking a shower and digging out some of his new clothes to wear, Harry settled on the couch to continue reading.


	5. Deafening Determination

**Chapter 5**

Deafening Determination

The next few days passed quickly for Harry as he read through his book and began organizing his mind. Even after suffering through years of his Potions instructions, he was shocked at how bad Snape's Occlumency lessons truly were. Contrary to what the greasy git had taught him, it turns out Occlumency was much more involved than simply 'clearing your mind'. Through his reading and Tonks' explanations, he learned that any loose thoughts would be easy for a Legilimens to pick up, so the first step in Occlumency was to learn how to organize his mind and hide his important memories, while leaving a cloud of stray thoughts to distract and slow down any attacker, after which he would learn how to construct barriers. It was slow going but, thanks to Tonks, Harry felt he was making progress. Along with their morning runs, she had been helping him every night after she returned from work, answering any questions he had and giving him pointers.

Harry glanced over at the fireplace as he waited for Tonks to return home. After spending most of the past week reading and meditating, only leaving the flat to go jogging, her promise to go out for dinner and a movie had him almost twitching in excitement. He was embarrassed to admit he was developing a bit of a crush on her, one that was certainly helped along by her constant teasing. He could hardly go longer than an hour with her without his face seeming to catch fire, not that he really minded. What sort of teenage boy would he be if he didn't enjoy having a beautiful woman flirt with him, even if she was only teasing him.

Green flames sprung up suddenly in the fireplace, quickly followed by Tonks as she tumbled out of the fireplace, the same way she did every day. Knowing her general entry routine, Harry was already on his feet and moving to help her up. "Hey Tonks, how was your day?" he asked, pulling her to her feet and helping to dust the soot from her.

She thanked him, before pulling out her wand and removing the rest of the soot from her clothes, "Work was pretty awful, but I got news from Dumbledore right before I left. He said headquarters is prepared. I can take you over there as soon as you're ready"

Harry looked at her somewhat disappointed. While he knew it wasn't safe for him to stay with Tonks long term, he had hoped that he would have at least had the chance to stay the weekend with her. But now it seemed like movie night was canceled and instead he had been sentenced to spend the rest of the summer in Grimmauld Prison. Tonks noticed his look and smacked his shoulder to gain his attention.

"What's the matter Harry, you're not going to miss little old me are you?" she asked with a big grin on her face.

"Well maybe a little," he replied, "Who else is going to come running with me?"

"You mean whose ass are you going to stare at while you go running?"

Harry forced himself to keep looking her in the eyes and tried to stop the color he felt rising in his cheeks, knowing she was just trying to embarrass him again. Besides, it wasn't like he did it on purpose, she was just in much better shape than he was and he usually fell a little bit behind. Deciding it was time for him to pay her back a little he replied, "Well I wouldn't want you to have to arrest me. It looks so good in those shorts, it would be a crime not to stare."

Tonks didn't even blink at his attempt to embarrass her, "Well maybe if you're good I'll give you a closer look," she said seductively.

'Merlin, is she serious?' he thought to himself, 'I mean she _does_ flirt with me a lot, would it be so inconceivable that she-,' he stopped himself as he caught her grin, 'Bloody hell, she did it again.' He sighed softly to himself and decided to quit while he was ahead, gathering his things to take to Grimmauld Place. It didn't take long, most of the clothes he had bought were still in their shopping bags and he didn't have a whole lot else anymore, so he was ready to go in minutes. He turned around to tell Tonks and found that she was no longer behind him. Looking around he walked into her room to find her throwing clothes over her shoulder into her trunk, "What are you doing?" he asked.

"You didn't think we were going to let you live on your own, did you Harry?" she asked, absentmindedly throwing more clothes into her trunk.

"I don't know, I hadn't thought about it. I guess I just sort of assumed the Weasley's would be staying with me."

"No, Bill upgraded the wards at the Burrow. Molly tried to get Dumbledore to let you stay with them, but he wouldn't have it. He said if you were staying there it would make them more of a target than they already are." Harry nodded at that. He definitely didn't want anyone to be in danger because of him, especially not the Weasley's. "Instead Remus and I are going to be moving in to 'keep an eye on you'," she said, making air quotes at the last few words, causing Harry to brighten up. All of a sudden this summer didn't sound like it would be so bad.

Tonks took on a more serious look, "Speaking of Remus, I was hoping you could help me cheer him up. He's been taking Sirius' death pretty hard and distancing himself from everyone. It's why I suggested to Dumbledore that he stay at Grimmauld Place to help look out for you. I figure between the two of us, maybe we can break him out of his shell."

Harry felt the guilt of Sirius' death start to sweep over him. 'It wasn't my fault,' he thought to himself, trying to push it away. He still felt a small pit of sadness in his stomach, but it was at least manageable, "Of course I'll help," he replied.

She flashed him a grin before closing her trunk and sending it towards the fireplace with a wave of her wand. "Alright, let's go, Dumbledore is waiting." She led him to the fireplace before jumping in with her trunk and disappearing. Harry followed after her, exiting the fireplace only to trip over Tonks as she picked herself off the ground, knocking her back down and landing on top of her.

"Just a bit of advice Harry, but generally you should buy a girl dinner before you attempt to jump her," Tonks said grinning at him once more before pushing him off of her and picking herself up again. Meanwhile, Harry flushed red, noticing Dumbledore standing a few feet to the side, smiling with the ever-present twinkle in his eye.

"Maybe I should go first from now on. I'm sure you wouldn't faceplant every time you Floo if there were someone to catch you on the other end," he retorted, causing her to scowl and stick her tongue out at him in return.

Dumbledore strode over to help Harry up and used his wand to remove most of the soot from his journey through the fireplace, "I am sorry Harry, but I am rather in a hurry and we have much to discuss, so perhaps you could finish your discussion later," he said turning and leading them to the sitting room. They followed quickly behind and when the three of them had seated themselves he continued, "We have much to discuss Harry, the most important of which is the issue you brought up when you gave permission for us to continue using Grimmauld Place as headquarters. I cannot, in good conscience, allow you to become a member of the Order until you have graduated," he held up as hand to stall Harry as he opened his mouth to protest, "even if you were to revoke the use of your house for the Order, I will not change my decision. However, I believe we can reach a compromise. I will allow you to attend meetings over the summer if you continue to allow us the use your home."

Harry looked at him in surprise. He had never expected the headmaster to give in even that much to his demands. "Would I be able to speak at these meetings?" he asked, trying to gauge exactly how much the headmaster was offering him.

"Of course Harry, everyone that attends is welcome to add their opinion. You will, however, not be allowed to participate in any missions for the Order."

Harry thought for a moment. He hadn't expected to be allowed to participate in missions and wouldn't be able to for most of the year anyways as he would be at school. "What about any training?"

Dumbledore shook his head, "I'm sorry Harry, but while the Ministry was able to accept your use of magic during the attack on your house, the restriction on underage magic still applies. Any use of your wand in a situation that isn't life threatening will result in charges."

Harry grimaced, he had hoped he would be allowed to use magic over the summer so that he could learn to protect himself better. The DA had certainly helped, but his experience at the Ministry had shown him he still had a long way to go. He frowned after a second, catching something in the headmaster's wording, "Any use of my wand? Does that mean the Ministry won't be able to trace any magic I do without my wand?" he asked, to which the headmaster nodded. Harry smiled, 'At least I'll be able to practice something,' he thought to himself. The only problem was finding out what kinds of magic didn't use a wand. Not knowing he asked the headmaster.

"There are many areas of magic that do not require a wand, my boy. One of the them that you are already familiar with is Occlumency," Harry nodded at that, that one was obvious to him as he had already been practicing, "In fact I hope you will continue to practice Occlumency over the summer to protect your mind from Voldemort. It may be wise for you to learn how to Apparate as well. Voldemort's followers would not expect you to have such an ability, so it would give you an unexpected escape route. Perhaps Ms. Tonks or Mr. Lupin will have time over the summer to teach you," he said, looking over at Tonks. She merely nodded in response. "I will ask that you use this ability only when absolutely necessary and not to go off on your own under any circumstances. I understand that most of your belongings were destroyed, I do however," he reached into a pocket in his robes, pulling out Harry's shrunken broom. He tapped it with his wand, allowing it to regrow to it's normal size, "believe this belongs to you. Your Quidditch ban has been repealed, along with the rest of the educational decrees passed in the last year." Harry grinned widely as he took his broom from the headmaster. He couldn't wait to get back in the air. "It will take a while to arrange a guard to accompany you to Diagon Alley to replace the rest of your belongings, but I'm sure we will manage to arrange something before school begins."

Harry nodded, careful not to look directly into the headmaster's eyes, "Alright Professor, I suppose if there is anything I really need, I can always order it by owl or ask an Order member to pick it up for me," he lied. He had no intention of running off to Diagon Alley by himself, but he did plan on convincing Tonks to take him, in disguise of course.

Dumbledore smiled at him, rising from his seat, "If neither of you have any questions, I must be going." When neither of them spoke up, he turned and left through the fireplace.

Harry grabbed his things and carried them upstairs to the room he had shared with Ron, dropping them on the bed. He looked up at the sounds of flapping wings and raised his arm just in time for Hedwig to land on it. He smiled and reached up to pet her, "Hey girl, I've missed you," he said as he ruffled the feathers under her neck. She nipped his finger affectionately as he turned towards the door, "Come on, I don't have any owl treats for you right now, but I'm sure we can find something in the kitchen," he said, leaving his room to find a treat for his faithful familiar.

OoOoO

A few days later Harry was woken up early, the same way he had been every day since he had started his training, by Tonks jumping on his bed. "Up you get sleepyhead," he groaned and looked up at her, fixing her with a glare, "you didn't think that just because it's Sunday that you would get out of your exercise, did you?"

"No, but do we really need to start this early?" Harry groaned as he tried to burrow into his pillow.

"Oh no you don't," Tonks said, grabbing and pulling on his arm trying to force him from his bed, "we're starting something new today, so we're getting an early start." He managed to shake her off just as she went for a large tug, sending her sprawling onto the ground with a yelp and a thud, causing Harry to bolt upright to check on her.

"Tonks are you okay?" he asked, peering at her over the edge of the bed.

She sat up and dusted herself off, giving him a dirty look, "I'm fine Potter, I'd be more worried about myself if I were you."

Harry gulped audibly and quickly jumped out of bed, grabbing his workout clothes and heading for the bathroom before she could retaliate. He exited the bathroom a few minutes later and followed an unusually silent Tonks outside to begin their morning run. He quickly fell behind as she set a grueling pace, pushing himself as she taunted him to keep up. She took him on a much longer route than they normally took leaving him exhausted by the time they returned home.

He entered the house and headed straight for the shower, intending to cool off, but was stopped before he could make it to the bathroom door, "And where do you think you're going?" she asked, crossing her arms at him. He sighed, apparently she wasn't done torturing him yet for knocking her off his bed.

He pointed to the bathroom, "I was going to go take a shower," he said, knowing it was the wrong answer.

"You didn't think I was done with you yet, did you?" she asked, smiling at him in a way that left him uneasy. He wasn't sure how to respond, so he remained silent. "Come on, I've decided it's time to start on the next part of your training," she motioned for him to follow and led him to an empty room, closing the door behind them. "You said you wanted to learn anything that might help you protect yourself, so here we are. I'm going to teach you hand to hand combat."

Harry eyes widened in surprise. He had always wanted to take karate as a kid, mostly to stop Dudley from picking on him. "That's great, I always wanted to learn how to fight," he said enthusiastically.

OoOoO

Half an hour later, Harry wasn't quite so enthusiastic. He was laying on his back for what must have been the fifteenth time, trying to catch his breath. His teacher on the other hand had hardly broken a sweat. She stood over him and reached down to help him up. He let her as she explained what he had done wrong this time. He attempted to listen, but the groaning in his muscles took up most of his concentration. So far he had yet to hit her with anything more than a glancing blow as she threw him on his back, down on his face or just twisted one of his limbs until he was forced to submit. As she finished speaking he nodded and she motioned for him to come at her again. He did so slowly, wary of her using his own force against him. He was still uncomfortable with trying to hit her, so he focused on trying to grapple with her. Seeing his strategy, she switched things up and took the offensive, throwing punches at him that he managed to block or dodge. His quick reflexes gained from a childhood of being his cousins' punching bag, along with his seeker training allowed him to avoid all but glancing blows. He kept it up until she overreached, grabbing her wrist and pulling her close to him to grab the other. He raised his knee, blocking a kick aimed at him and pushed, forcing her down to the ground. 'I finally got her,' he thought to himself, only to find himself soaring through the air as she flipped him over her head to land on his back, before continuing her roll to end up on top of him pinning his hands above his head. He tried to roll away from her, but she held him down.

"What's the matter Harry, girl on top not your thing?" she taunted.

He stopped struggling and looked at her, seeing his chance, "Actually, now that you mention it, I do kind of enjoy it," he said, pushing a lecherous grin onto his face. A look of surprise crossed Tonks' face that doubled when he used her distraction to flip her off him and pin her to the ground in a manner similar to which she had held him a moment before. "Ha, I got you," he said, smiling as he taunted her.

She struggled against him trying to break away, but he held on, not allowing her to regain the advantage. She looked at him, both panting in exertion for a moment before speaking. "Good job Harry," she said, looking up at him, "I definitely can't break out of that."

"So I finally win one?" he asked still smiling.

"I don't know, it sure doesn't feel like I lost. Maybe I'll have to let you win more often," she said winking up at him. He felt his grip loosen for a moment and instantly knew he had made a mistake. In the blink of an eye she had reversed their positions yet again, only this time his arm was bent uncomfortably behind his back. Wearing a big grin she looked down at him, "Then again, it's much more fun if I make you earn it."

Harry winced as he was forced to submit again. He had had her right where he wanted her and she had gotten the better of him yet again.

OoOoO

Harry stepped out of the shower feeling refreshed, but sore. Tonks hadn't let up on him, knocking him on his ass for nearly an hour before she was finished with him and in all that time he had hardly landed a single decent blow. No matter what he tried she always seemed to know what he was doing, it was infuriating. He dressed quickly and walked down to the kitchen to make breakfast, only to find Remus sitting on a stool drinking some tea and reading the paper. He looked older than the last time Harry had seen him, despite the fact that it had only been a few weeks.

"Moony," Harry exclaimed, rushing over to see him, "are you okay? You don't look so good."

A small smile crossed Remus' face as he looked up at Harry, "Hey pup, the full moon you know, I'm still a little bit under the weather."

Harry frowned as he grabbed a pan and began to cook breakfast for them, "I thought the full moon was four days ago."

"It was, I just had a rough go of it this time," Remus said tiredly.

"How come? Did that greasy git stop making your Wolfsbane?" Harry asked angrily. 'If that snarky git has stopped making Remus his potion...' Harry thought to himself as he crushed an egg in his hand.

Remus sighed, "No Harry, Severus made my potion for me, the same way he does every month."

Harry looked at him confused, "Then why was this full moon so.." he cut himself off, realizing why this time must have been so bad for Remus. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it, Sirius must have been using his Animagus form to keep him company during the full moon. "I'm sorry Remus," he said quietly, feeling guilty once again for his godfathers death.

"It isn't your fault pup, Sirius knew the risks when he went in, the same way we all did. Even if he knew the outcome, I'm sure he would have done it again. He loved you Harry, like the son he never had. He would have done anything to protect you."

Harry was quiet, he didn't know what to say. Tonks had spent days convincing him that Sirius' death wasn't his fault, but part of him couldn't help but think that if he'd hadn't gone to the Ministry that day, Sirius would be sitting across from him right now. He continued making breakfast in silence until Tonks came down.

"Wotcher Remus," she called out as she walked in, tripping in her hurry to greet him and ran into him, causing his tea to spill over the table, "Oh sorry, here let me get that for you," she said as she flushed scarlet. Harry looked at her curiously, he had never seen her embarrassed by her clumsiness before. She pulled out her wand to clean up the spilled tea, only to drop it underneath the table. Her face flushed a shade of red Harry wasn't sure would be possible for anyone other than a metamorphmagus, as she dropped to the floor to pick up her wand.

"It's good to see you Tonks," Remus said with a slight smile, pulling out his own wand. He cast a quick scourgify at the table, vanishing the spilled tea, seemingly unaware that Tonks' face currently resembled a sunset. She stood up quickly, giving Harry a warning glare as he looked questioningly at her. Unsure what to make of her actions Harry ignored her and began to separate the food onto three plates. They ate in relative silence, with Harry and Remus both caught up in their own depressions, while Tonks seemed to be too embarrassed to look at either of them for the moment.

The silence continued until they finished eating, when Tonks announced their plans for the rest of the day, "I think that we should spend the rest of the morning going over Apparation Harry. We'll give you your first lesson and with any luck you'll be able to do it by the end of the week."

Remus just nodded, obviously having been filled in Dumbledore before he had arrived and led the way out of the kitchen and into the sitting room to begin the lesson. "Now Harry," he said, entering professor mode and conjuring a pair of hoops that he placed at each end of the room, "the key to apparation is determination. The first step is to fix your mind upon your destination," Harry looked at the hoop standing on the opposite side of the room, trying to take in ever detail. After waiting a minute for Harry to get a good picture of where he would be apparating to, Remus continued, "Now, while keeping the picture of your destination, envision yourself standing there," he waited, allowing Harry time to alter the picture in his mind, "and now, holding that picture in your mind, you spin on the spot, focusing on your desire to occupy your destination."

Harry took a deep breath, holding the picture of him standing across the room in his mind. He closed his eyes and spun quickly on the spot, only to lose his balance and fall into the chair beside him.

OoOoO

Two days later Harry was standing in the sitting room again, having lost count of the times he had spun on the spot, trying to fade from his current position and end up in the hoop on the other side of the room.

Tonks walked into the room brushing the soot of her shoulders, having just returned from Auror headquarters "Hey boys, any luck yet?" she asked.

Remus looked up at her from a nearby chair, "Nothing yet," he looked over at Harry, taking in his expression, "Calm down pup, you won't get anywhere if you don't focus. Frustration will only get in the way."

Harry leaned his head back, thinking over the last couple of days. He had spent an hour each day trying to apparate across the room and had yet to succeed. Remus assured him this was normal and it usually took four or five lessons before even the quick learners managed an apparation at Hogwarts. He closed his eyes and tried to calm down, focusing on the hoop across the room and visualized himself standing inside of it. He felt his magic straining to be released, a sensation that had been growing ever since he had fled Privet Drive. He allowed the magic to build up, trying to meld it with his desire to be standing on the other side of the room and with a last deep breath he spun on the spot, feeling himself being sucked through a tube. The sensation only lasted a moment before he found himself standing on the opposite site of the room, facing the wall. He smiled enthusiastically and spun to face Remus and Tonks to find them both laying on the ground with their hands over their ears and shocked looks across their faces.

"What the hell was that," Tonks half shouted, as if she couldn't hear herself properly.

Remus shook his head as he tried to gain his bearing, picking himself off the ground and righting his chair before replying in a similar voice, "I think Harry just managed his first Apparation."

Harry hurried over to help Tonks off the ground, "I'm so sorry, I don't know what happened," he said sheepishly.

"It's alright Harry," Remus said, almost yelling, "most people are quite loud when they first learn to Apparate."

Tonks scowled at him, "Well I've never heard of anyone making a noise like THAT!" she said, pointing at one of the windows, which now had a long crack running down the length of it.

Remus quickly pulled out his wand and fixed the damage before turning back to Harry and patting him on the shoulder, "It's alright pup, you'll just have to learn control. Now that you've managed to Apparate, you should try focusing on arriving slower. It will take practice, but with a little work you should be able to manage it without deafening everybody with a hundred meter radius," he said, smiling to show Harry he was joking. "You did good, most people take weeks of practice to manage their first apparition."

Harry blushed, "Well I just did what you said, I calmed myself down and focused."

Tonks bounded over and wrapped him up in a hug, apparently having already forgiven him for nearly bursting her eardrums, "I'm proud of you Harry. Now are you ready to try again?"

Harry nodded enthusiastically at that, taking his original spot. He closed his eyes to focus again before Tonks stopped him, and quickly conjured two sets of pink earmuffs, placing one on Remus before donning the other herself. "Remember, try to arrive slower this time," she said before motioning for him to continue.

With the added confidence of his success, Harry closed his eyes and calmed himself, this time focusing on both his magic and the speed of his arrival. He felt the now familiar sensation of being pulled through a tube as the world blurred around him before coming into focus facing the wall again. He turned around as Remus used his wand to repair a slightly smaller crack in the window and Tonks rushed over to congratulate him again.


	6. Headache

**Chapter 6**

Headache

A week passed before it was time for Harry to attend his first Order meeting, a week that he spent running, practicing his Occlumency and Apparation, and getting beaten up by Tonks. He grinned as he thought back over all he had accomplished that week. His endurance had increased over the past few days, to the point where Tonks was able to actually work up a sweat during their morning run without leaving him in the dust. He had quickly become proficient in Apparating, quieting the sound of his disappearance from that of a large bomb to a dull pop, practicing his jumps between a few small towns surrounding London and even managing to bring Remus along with him.

His Occlumency training had progressed to the next level as well, with Tonks attempting to breach his shields. She wasn't a very talented Legilimens, but for the moment that was actually beneficial to their training as his shields were still very flimsy. He hadn't managed to keep her completely out of his head yet, but had been steadily improving, keeping her out for a little longer and throwing her out a little quicker each time. He had even managed to beat Tonks once in their hand to hand combat training, though to be fair it had been mostly by accident. He had tripped while they grappled and managed to fall on top of her and knock the wind from her long enough for him to get her into one of the many painful holds she had placed him in over the past week. He grinned as he thought back to the look of surprise she had given him as she'd been forced to tap out. She had been both angry and proud, knocking him on his ass a little harder than she usually did for the rest of their practice session before treating both him and Remus to dinner at a Chinese restaurant.

On top of his training, he and Tonks had been working on their mission to cheer up Moony and were making solid progress. He no longer had quite the worn out look he had had the first morning he had shown up at Grimmauld Place and he had begun to smile a lot more, as he told Harry stories of his parents and Sirius. Tonks joined in, telling stories of her own time at Hogwarts, where she seemed to get into almost as much trouble as his father and godfather had. If there had been any doubts that she was related to Sirius, they were squashed by the tales of some of the pranks she had committed while in school. Harry in turn told them in detail about some of his adventures, though his tales were generally much darker than any of the stories told by the other two.

It was that mission that led to him waiting in the sitting room, nodding to the Order members that he recognized as they arrived one by one and walked into the dining room. He looked at his watch, forgetting again that it was broken, before looking up at the mantle. Still more than ten minutes until the meeting was supposed to start. He rubbed his forehead as he began pacing. He was getting anxious, he wanted to get this out of the way before the meeting started. Just as he decided he would have to wait until after the meeting, the woman he had been looking for walked into the room.

"Professor McGonagall," he waved, greeting her as he hurried to stop her before she could enter the dining room, "I was hoping I could speak with you for a moment in private."

She stopped and looked at him curiously for a moment before responding, "I suppose so, Mr. Potter, though it will have to be quick."

He led her into another room, closing the door behind her, suddenly nervous. He looked away from the stern professor, struggling to decide where to begin.

"What did you wish to speak about Mr. Potter?"

Harry took a deep breath and decided to get right to the point as his scar gave another painful twinge, "I was wondering if you would teach me to become an Animagus," he said in a rush. Looking up he noticed the lack of surprise on his professors face.

The stern woman looked at him for a moment before she sighed, "I can't say I'm surprised Mr. Potter. I suppose I should be glad you asked me for aid and didn't attempt to learn the transformation on your own like your father. Are you aware of the time and effort required to complete the Animagus transformation?"

Harry nodded, surprised that she hadn't already told him no, "Yes Professor, Sirius told me about it over Christmas last year. He was going to teach me over the summer," he said, holding back the tears that came at the thought of his godfather.

The stern look on McGonagall's face faded away as she regarded her student, "You know, Mr. Potter, people generally don't become Animagi until after they obtain their NEWT's," she said, watching him closely.

"But it is possible to learn it earlier, my dad and Sirius both managed it while the are still at Hogwarts."

"Yes it is possible," she looked at him for a moment before continuing, "alright Mr. Potter, I will attempt to teach you how to become an Animagus."

"Thank you Professor," he said and grabbed her into a hug. She stiffened for a moment in shock before relaxing and returning the hug.

"You're welcome Mr. Potter," she said as he released her and wiped the unshed tears from his eyes, "I suppose I should be glad that you came to me instead of trying to learn the transformation on your own. Even now, I think the most impressive thing your father and godfather ever accomplished, was becoming Animagi on their own before they even finished their O.W.L.s. While it was without a doubt the stupidest of all the stunts they ever pulled, I have never been more proud of any of my Gryffindors than when I learned what they had done to help Mr. Lupin."

Harry smiled as he thought of all the adventures the Marauders must have had while still at school, and dreamed of what sort of reaction Sirius and his father would have to him following in their footsteps.

"Now Harry, the meeting is about to start, so I must be going. I'll let you know in a day or two when we can begin your lessons," she said before opening the door and exiting the room. Harry followed behind her and almost walked into her back as she stopped. He looked around her to see why she had stopped to find the headmaster standing in front of them. "Good evening Albus, I see we finished our discussion just in time."

"Minerva, Harry, I'm happy to see you both. If you two would follow me," he stopped for a moment at a raised eyebrow from the transfiguration professor, "yes Minerva, I have decided that you were right to suggest that Mr. Potter be allowed to attend Order meetings. If you will both follow me, we will begin the meeting in just a moment." Harry's eyes widened in surprise at the statement.

"Don't look so surprised Mr. Potter," said his head of house as she noticed his expression, "despite your years I, unlike some of the others, believe your insight will be a welcome addition to our discussions."

"Thanks you professor," Harry said before following them in and moving towards the wall to stand between Remus and Tonks. Dumbledore moved to the head of the table with McGonagall taking the spot to his left. He looked around the room taking in all the faces. Most of the seats were filled by the older members of the Order, the only one of which that Harry recognized being Elphias Doge. Snape stood slightly behind and off to the side, hiding in the shadows. On the opposite side of the room from Harry, Hestia Jones was conversing quietly with Emmeline Vance and Sturgis Podmoore. Mundungus Fletcher stood at the far end of the table from Dumbledore, along with a few wizards that Harry didn't know by name, trying to avoid Mad-Eye's magic eye, which was following him as he spoke with Remus and Kingsley. He took another look around, searching for the flaming red hair that would signify the Weasley's, when he felt an elbow in his side.

"So, what were you and McGonagall talking about?" Tonks whispered.

Harry looked at her, surprised that she had noticed, "What do you mean?" he asked evasively.

She laughed softly, "Harry, it's rather obvious that you were planning something, you made a point of waiting out there, and then dragged her into that side room the moment she appeared. So what was it?"

He looked at her for a second, debating whether or not he should tell her. In the end he was decided by the fact that he likely wouldn't be able to keep it from her if he tried, especially not if he was also keeping it secret from Remus. He didn't want to get Remus' hopes up in case he failed. "I'll tell you later," he whispered. Turning back towards the head of the table the door opened again and four Weasley's filed in. They didn't notice him as they walked around the table to take up places on the opposite side of the table. He rubbed his forehead as the pain slowly increased. Dumbledore stood up to start the meeting, "Now that we're all here, let us begin. Alastor, if you would," he said, gesturing to Mad-Eye.

He opened his mouth to begin, but was cut off by Mrs. Weasley, who had obviously just noticed Harry standing there, "Headmaster, don't you think we should wait until after Harry leaves the room?"

Dumbledore looked over at her, "No Molly, I invited Harry to join us. Alastor, if you could begin?" Moody opened up his mouth again, but only let out a low growl as he was interrupted again.

"Why would you invite Harry to a meeting, he isn't a part of the Order, he's still a child," Harry scowled at her as a few of the older members murmured their support.

"I believe Harry is more than mature enough to be here Molly," Dumbledore said patiently, obviously expecting her to agree with him and allow the matter to drop.

"Harry dear, I think it would be best if you waited outside," she said, ignoring Dumbledore and looking over at him, "you're much too young to be hearing these things."

"No Mrs. Weasley, I want to know what is going on," he replied, annoyed by her attempts to treat him like a child.

"Harry dear, please, why don't you go read, or maybe Floo over to the Burrow. I'm sure Ron and Ginny would be happy to see you. Maybe in a few years you'll be ready to-"

He cut her off, "I said no Mrs. Weasley, I want to be here, I want to know what is going on."

Snape sneered at him, "And of course you think you are entitled to whatever you want Potter."

Dumbledore cut in before Harry could respond so he contented himself with a glare at his Potions Professor, "That is enough Severus. Molly, Harry is not joining the Order yet, or at least not as a full member. He will be joining meetings to stay apprised of what Voldemort is planning and to offer his insight."

"But Albus, he's much to young, he doesn't need to know. Maybe in a few years he can join up, but for now he should relax and enjoy his childhood."

Harry was fuming. He hated it when people talked about him like he wasn't there. He was supposed to enjoy his childhood was he? How was he supposed to do that while people that he loved about died in front of him? "Mrs. Weasley, I know you care about me, but these aren't your decisions to make."

Tonks backed him up, "Molly, Harry isn't your son, you can't stop him from being here."

"He may as well be!" Molly shouted, standing up, "I'm the closest thing to a mother he has."

"He isn't a child any more Molly, he's a young man and he's been through more than almost anyone else at this table," Remus replied evenly, refusing to get drawn into a shouting match.

"AND I'M TRYING TO MAKE SURE HE DOESN'T HAVE TO GO THROUGH ANY MORE," she shouted at him.

"Keeping me in the dark isn't going to keep me out of danger," Harry replied, trying and failing to hold in his anger. "In fact not knowing was what led me into his trap in the first place. I WILL be a part of Order meetings from now on, there is nothing you can say to change that."

Tears welled up in Molly's eyes as she lowered her tone, "I'm know you're sad about what happened Harry, but I'm just trying to do what is best for you."

"I know Mrs. Weasley, but it isn't your choice to make. I'm old enough to make my own decisions," he said as Mrs. Weasley lowered herself into her seat, apparently realizing that she wasn't going to win this battle.

The meeting began and Harry listened intently as different Order members would stand and give any new intel they had gathered, but most of it seemed pointless. None of them seemed to be doing anything other than watching suspected Death Eaters or targets. Harry quickly became irritated due to the combination of the pain in his forehead and the lack of useful information and was rather relieved when the meeting ended quickly. Remus, Mad-Eye and Kingsley went over to talk to Dumbledore, erecting a privacy ward as they talked about something that was obviously for only the senior members of the Order, while the rest quickly left. Harry looked over at Tonks, "Are all these meetings as useless as that one?"

"Generally," she replied with a sigh, "for the most part we watch for anything out of the ordinary. We look for future attacks and plan on how we could stop them."

"What about capturing Death Eaters and interrogating them?" he asked.

"No, we generally just gather information and try to stop his recruiting efforts."

"What about our recruiting efforts? I didn't see anyone that wasn't here last summer," he asked her with annoyance that he was aware wasn't entirely his own.

Tonks shook her head, "No, we haven't had any new members since shortly after Fudge began his smear campaign." She looked at him as him as he grimaced and raised his hand to his forehead, "Harry are you alright?"

He shook his head, "No. He's angry," he said now holding his head in obvious pain, "I think I'm going to-" he cut off as he slumped to the ground, only stopping as Tonks caught him.

OoOoO

Voldemort stood on the hill overlooking Bones Manor, gazing down at the wards surrounding it. He watched impatiently as two of his curse breakers toiled, trying to bring down the wards without alerting the Ministry. "What is taking so long?" he hissed at them, the fury that had been building over the last hour beginning to overflow.

One of them looked up at the Dark Lord, quivering in fear, "I'm sorry my Lord, we are working as fast as we can. It seems the wards here are more complicated than we had expected."

Voldemort gazed down at the man coldly. If competent curse breakers hadn't been in such short supply he would have killed the fool already. "Well if you are incapable of the job, perhaps I will no longer require your services."

The color drained from the man's face as he tried to stammer out an apology, "Yes milord, we're almost finished," before returning to his work.

Voldemort turned and surveyed the Death Eaters that had accompanied him. They would lead the attack while he held large area anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards until his curse breakers could establish a proper warding scheme. It would only take a few minutes, but none of his followers had enough skill or power to hold the wards over such a large area for long enough to establish a ward anchor. "You will all surround the house and prevent anyone from escaping. You may kill any that attempt to fight back, except for Bones. If she tries to flee you may subdue her, but I will kill her myself." He smiled as all the masked faces in front of him cowered in fear. He would enjoy this night. It had been such a long time since he had enjoyed himself.

He turned back to the two curse breakers just as one raised his head from his work and bowed before him. "We are ready to drop the wards at your command my Lord."

He felt his irritation vanish. Perhaps he wouldn't have to kill one of his precious few ward breakers after all. He gave the command to drop the wards as his Death Eaters moved to surround the Manor. Soon he would kill one of the few that were willing to stand against him. With the death of the head of the DMLE he would weaken both the Ministry and the will of the people to oppose him.

OoOoO

Harry woke up to find Remus, Tonks and Dumbledore leaning over him, with Moody and Kingsley standing behind them.

"Bones Manor," he managed to say, as he was pulled into a sitting position, "he is about to attack Madam Bones. Voldemort himself is there, along with at least a dozen Death Eaters."

All five faces looked at him in shock. Dumbledore was the first to recover, "You're sure Harry?"

Harry nodded, "Positive, the attack should just be starting."

Dumbledore turned to the men gathered around him, "Kingsley, Remus, Alastor, come with me. Nymphadora, you will remain with Harry." He looked at the three men before asking them if they were ready, to which all three nodded before disappearing with three quick pops.

"Harry are you okay?" Tonks asked as she helped him off the ground.

"Yeah Tonks, I'm fine," he said allowing her to pull him to his feet, "come on, we should try to catch someone before they leave, they're going to need some backup," he raced into the sitting room to catch any stragglers. He looked around finding none, "Damn it," he cried, "come on, we need to help them."

Tonks stopped him, "Harry no, Dumbledore knows what he is doing."

"But Tonks, they're outnumbered. There are at least a dozen Death Eaters there, plus Voldemort himself. They're going to need help."

She looked at him uncertainly, "Harry, Dumbledore told us to stay here. He gave a direct order Harry, we can't."

Harry grimaced for a moment, trying to think of a way around Dumbledore's orders when he smiled, "No he didn't, he told you to stay with me. I'm going to help, so you're just going to have to come with me." As soon as he finished speaking he grabbed Tonks by the shoulder and they disappeared with a pop.


	7. Battle at the Bones

**Chapter 7**

Battle at Bones Manor

Susan dove behind a wall just as two curses tore through the space where she had been standing. She peeked around the corner and cast a quick stupefy at one of the two Death Eaters there, hitting him in the face, before ducking back around the corner as a sickly bolt of green shot through the door. She shuddered as it flew past her before blindly casting an impedimenta around the corner, as she looked around desperately for her Aunt. She had told Susan to make a run for it out the back and stayed behind to hold off the Death Eaters that had attacked from the front along with her one of Auror guards, but there had been more Death Eaters making their way in through the back. They had killed the two Auror cadets guarding the back and Susan had been playing a deadly game of cat and mouse ever since, retreating further into the house, trying to find a way to escape. Not seeing her Aunt, she decided to keep falling back, hoping to hold them long enough for more Aurors to come to their aid. Her Aunt was the head of the DMLE, so they must be coming for her, right?

Looking around the corner again, she saw the Death Eater she had hit getting up off the ground, having been revived by his partner. Grimacing, Susan pointed her wand at a chair in between them, "Reducto!" she screamed, before falling back into the kitchen, taking cover behind an overturned table as a few more curses came through the hallway. She crouched behind the table, panting and trying to catch her breath. 'I can't keep this up for much longer', she thought to herself, 'I'm exhausted.' She was surprised she had lasted as long as she had against two adult wizards, but they didn't seem to be slowing down, while she was pushing herself to her limit. She looked at the doorway behind her, deciding it was her only shot. She would make a break for it, try to make it to her broom and fly away.

She stood, casting a cutting curse at her assailants and making a break for the door. She had almost made it through when she was thrown off her feet into the wall, landing on her side, her wand falling on the ground in front of her. She tried to reach for it, but stopped as the pain welled up in her arm. Gritting her teeth she pushed through the pain and had almost reached her wand when it suddenly flew away from her into the waiting hand of one of her attackers.

"Oh no girlie, there will be none of that," said her masked assailant, waving a finger back and forth. She glowered at him and tried to push herself up, only managing to make it into a sitting position.

"Ooh this one has spirit," said the other, walking slowly towards her, "I like the feisty ones."

"Too bad we can't take you with us. I think you could have been a lot of fun," said the first. She blanched in fear at the thought of them taking her with them and almost missed the second part of his statement. But if they weren't going to take her with them, what were they going to do with her?

"Oh c'mon, we can still have a little bit of fun with her," said the second, pointing his wand towards her. She tried to pull herself towards the door in an attempt to get away. "Crucio".

Susan felt like her whole body was on fire. like she had stepped into an inferno. Time stretched as her body convulsed, pain flowing through every single nerve ending. When the pain finally stopped she opened her eyes to find herself in the fetal position with her back against the wall. With a tremendous effort she pushed herself back into a sitting position facing her attackers, feeling her vision dim, her grasp on consciousness fading. 'If I'm going to die, I'm not going to do it lying down,' she thought to herself. She tried to push herself to her feet, but failed, falling back against the wall.

"Oh ho ho, a REALLY spirited one she is, if only we had more time to play."

"Well we don't, so come on, finish her off and let's get moving, Aurors could be here any second."

Susan could only watch in horror as the masked man in front of her raised his wand. She saw the green light gather at the tip of his wand as he shouted, "Avada Kedavra." Her vision dimmed as she watched, resigned to the fact that she was about to die as the green light sped towards her. Her eyes widened in shock as a pot flew in front of her, intercepting the bolt of green death before it could claim her. She watched for a moment as a familiar figure ran into the room engaging the two Death Eaters, before she faded into unconsciousness.

OoOoO

Harry and Tonks reappeared in a small grove of trees at the bottom of the hill he had seen in his vision. He let her go and drew his wand, taking in his surroundings.

"Of all the pigheaded moves Potter," she growled in a low voice, "I should take you back to headquarters right now and leave you tied to the ceiling."

"You can get mad at me later, this isn't the time or the place," he replied planning their next move. Tonks gave him a glare to let him know that they would be speaking of this later, but remained silent. His scar ached, letting him know that Voldemort was close by, but the pain was weak enough to let him know that he was no longer waiting on top of the hill. That hopefully left only the two curse breakers alone on top of the hill, likely monitoring the ward anchor they had used to erect the anti-apparition wards. "Come on," he said, pointing up the hill, "their ward anchor should be up there with only a pair of curse breakers monitoring it."

Tonks followed him as he led the way up the hill, sticking to the shadows, glad he had worn darker colors tonight. They crept up the hill, using a small rise to hide them from the view of anyone remaining to protect the anchor. When they made it to the top they found that their cautiousness was unnecessary, as only the two curse breakers remained at the top of the hill, one monitoring the runes on the ward stone, the other gazing down at the battle playing out on the Manor grounds. He looked at Tonks, motioning first to himself and then the Death Eater watching the battle. She nodded and pointed her wand at the other. He put up three fingers to signify on three, before giving the count and sending a stunner at the preoccupied Death Eater. Another burst of red came from beside him, both finding their mark. They waited for a moment, looking for movement before they moved to the incapacitated Death Eaters.

"What should we do with them?" he asked.

Tonks walked over to hers, "Bind yours, take his wand and bring him here," she ordered, before following her own instructions. Harry quickly bound his Death Eater and summoned his wand, before floating him over next to his companion. Tonks reached down and grabbed a nearby stick. It glowed blue as she tapped it with her wand and dropped it onto their unconscious prisoners, who promptly disappeared. "They'll wake up in a holding cell," she said and started walking down towards the battle.

"Tonks wait, shouldn't we destroy this?" he asked, pointing at the ward anchor.

"No," she said, shaking her head, "it will stop them from Apparating away and maybe help us capture some."

"But it will stop us from Apparating too. Besides, as long as they don't know their wards are down, we'll have an advantage, won't we?"

She looked at him for a moment before nodding, "Good idea Harry. We can apparate to the back of the Manor and take out any that are trying to break in from the back."

Harry nodded before aiming at the ward stone and blowing it up. He then walked over to Tonks, allowing her to take his arm and Apparate them to the back of the Manor.

They moved quickly and quietly to the back door, which had been blown open. They moved inside carefully, moving past the three bodies laying on the ground. Two young Aurors lay on the ground, one surrounded by a pool of blood, the other with the glassy eyed stare that marked a victim of the killing curse. A Death Eater also lay surrounded by a pool of blood near the remains of an overturned table, a piece of which stuck out of the eye hole of his mask. Harry shuddered as they passed the grizzly scene, intent on finding any survivors. They continued searching room by room until they were interrupted by a scream.

Harry took off before Tonks could stop him, trying to find the source of the screaming, but it cut off after a few seconds, leaving him guessing. He stuck his head into room after room, searching for the source. He ran into the kitchen, his eyes taking in the two Death Eaters standing over a red headed girl just in time to see one raise his wand. "Avada Kedavra," he screamed, bringing his wand down towards the injured girl.

Even as his arm still fell, Harry aimed at a pot lying on the counter, "Depulso," he said quietly, banishing it towards the man just in time to intercept his curse. Harry didn't let his moment of surprise go to waste as he attacked the two Death Eaters, trying to take their attention from the injured girl lying on the floor. He pushed them away from her as he advanced, not letting up in his assault as he alternated between stunners, bludgeoners and cutters. He had just made it even with the girl when the tide changed and he suddenly found himself on the defensive. He raised a shield, blocking the first pair of curses, before diving behind a counter as they sent a pair of Unforgivables towards him, the twin green lights smashing into the wall behind him. He winced in pain as he was hit by a few of the splinters that exploded out from the wall, before jumping up from the ground and casting another stunner over the counter as Tonks ran into the room, joining the fight. Harry used the distraction to pull the girl behind cover, before jumping back into the fight.

They quickly took the offensive, overpowering the Death Eaters as Tonks managed to score a hit with a bludgeoner, dislocating the shoulder of one of them and forcing him to drop his wand. Both Harry and Tonks pressed the remaining Death Eater, showering him with spells as he held a shield to give time for his partner to regain his wand. Harry could see him straining to hold the shield and pushed as much power as he could into his next spell, shattering it. Harry smiled grimly and moved to finish the fight, but was forced to change his stunner into a shield as two more Death Eaters joined the first two, giving the others time to regain the wands. Once again, Harry found himself pushed on the defensive. He winced in pain as a cutting curse knicked his arm, before blocking a pair of ugly looking curses and dropping to one knee behind his cover to avoid another Killing Curse as they focused on him.

He looked over at Tonks, trying to decide on a plan. She blindly cast a few curses in the direction of the Death Eaters before turning to him, "What do you think, retreat?" she asked.

Harry shook his head, a grin spreading across his face, "Make some noise." He raised his wand over the counter and shot off two quick bombarda's at the ceiling above the Death Eaters and using the noise to mask the sound of his apparation. He reappeared behind their attackers, who remained unaware of his presence. All four were aiming curses at the counter he had just disappeared from behind, one more slowly as he was using his off hand. Harry quickly began raining down a barrage of curses on the unprepared Death Eaters. His first two landed on the one closest to him, stunning and binding the man, before switching to his next target. One of the Death Eaters yelled out, "Behind us!," spinning to meet the new attack. Tonks, seeing his strategy used the confusion to add her own spells into the mix. Harry managed to hit the already wounded man with an cutting curse on his other arm as he dove behind cover, causing him to drop his wand as Tonks' target smashed into the wall with a heavy thud. They both advanced on the remaining armed Death Eater before he disappeared with a pop, taking his wounded companion with him.

Harry summoned the wands from the downed Death Eaters, placing them with the one he had acquired earlier while Tonks bound the man she had incapacitated, before grabbing a wooden spoon from one of the drawers, turning it into a Portkey before dropping it on the bound men.

Harry raced back towards his original cover, and checked on the girl he'd found. He recognized her as he brushed the hair out her face, "Susan," he said, recognizing the girl as she groaned beneath him, "Tonks, get over here, I need you to check on her. I don't know any healing spells."

Tonks knelt over her, waving her wand, "Hmm.. Broken arm, bruised ribs, concussion and Cruciatus exposure. I can't do anything for her, we should get her out of here, take her to St. Mungo's."

Harry leaned down, and gently picked her up, she groaned as he lifted her into his arms. "I got her Tonks, you ready?"

"Harry, you can't Apparate into St. Mungo's, you're still only fifteen," Tonks said, stopping him.

Harry shook his head, "Just put your hand on my shoulder. I'll Apparate myself and her, you just come along at the same time. We can just pretend that you brought us, no one will be able to tell the difference."

Tonks muttered softly before nodding, "Fine, let's just be quick about it. On three, to the street outside St. Mungo's. One. Two. Three."

Harry nodded, calling up his memory of his last visit to the hospital. On three they both turned on the spot and disappeared before reappearing in front of an old department store. They walked up to the window, where Tonks spoke to one of the dummies before walking through the glass. Harry quickly followed, carrying the wounded redhead in his arms.


	8. St Mungo's

**Chapter 8**

St. Mungos

They walked into the reception area, where Harry followed Tonks up to an oddly familiar old witch wearing lime-green robes with a crossed wand and bone emblazoned across the front, similar to a couple others throughout the room. She pulled her identification from one of her pockets, "Madam Clark, we require your assistance immediately. Alert any available staff, there could be more injured on the way shortly."

The healer nodded conjuring a stretcher, on which Harry carefully placed the girl lying in his arms. She turned to one of her co-workers, "There's been an attack, alert the rest of the staff," before beginning to wave her wand over Susan. "Broken arm, fractured rib, concussion and mild Cruciatus exposure," she said, examining her patient, "nothing life-threatening. Come, we'll move her to a room and take care of her there."

Harry and Tonks followed the healer through the hospital, before she led them into an empty room, she stopped to levitate Susan to the waiting bed and vanished the stretcher. She cast a few spells over Susan, which seemed to help as her breathing eased and some of the color returned to her face, before turning to face the two of them, "What is your friends name, dear?" she asked, as she moved over to Harry and began casting spells at him.

Harry has his wand on her faster than she could blink, "What are you doing?" he asked, taking a step back. He felt uneasy having an unknown witch waving her wand at him. Just because she was a healer didn't mean she couldn't be one of Voldemort's supporters.

"I'm checking on your wounds young man, now stop moving so I can take a look at you," she replied, giving him a no nonsense look and moving forward, pushing his wand arm out of the way as she began waving her own wand at him again and began muttering softly.

"I'm fine," he said, still wary as he allowed her to push his arm down.

"Of course you are dearie, I'm sure all of that blood just happened to get on you by mistake." Harry looked down at himself in surprise as he noticed the dark wet spots on his shirt and the thick trail of blood running down his arm. With his adrenaline running he had forgotten about the wounds he had taken during the fight. He returned his attention to the witch in front of him as she quietly ranted while she started closing his cuts. "Teenagers, I swear, I don't know how Poppy deals with them all the time."

Harry looked at her strangely for a moment, trying to remember where he had heard that name before, "Wait, you know Madam Pomfrey?" he asked. He felt quite stupid as she looked up at him and arched an eyebrow. Of course they would know each other, it wasn't like there were that many healers in Britain.

"Of course, she's my sister." Harry looked at her surprised. She had reminded him of the school nurse, but he had assumed it was just her attitude and the fact that she was a healer. Now that he looked though, he could see the family resemblance. She finished closing the rest of his cuts before speaking again, "Now, what is the girls name? I need to log her in at the front desk."

"Susan, Susan Bones," he replied, as she gave him a piercing look after he forgot to give her last name.

"Bones? Any relation to Amelia Bones, head of the DMLE?" she asked.

"Yes, she's her niece," Harry replied.

"Oh dear," she said, her hand going to her mouth, "well I had better go and inform the front desk in case her aunt comes looking for her. I will be back shortly with some potions for Ms. Bones. You should sit down too dear."

After the healer had left Tonks turned to Harry, "We should head back to headquarters Harry. Dumbledore will be furious if he gets back and finds you not there."

Harry shrugged, "Let him be mad I'm staying here, at least until someone else comes. I know how awful it is to wake up in a hospital bed alone with no idea how you got there."

"Harry, it could be dangerous, someone could have recognized you."

"It's fine Tonks, Tommy-Boy is busy tonight. Besides Madam Clark won't tell anyone I'm here."

"How do you know that?" she demanded, fists on her hips glaring at him. It would have been an intimidating pose, if not for the small wince she gave at his casual naming of the Dark Lord.

"Well for one, you went straight to her, rather than one of the other healers that were closer to the door, so while she may not be a member of the Order, she's at least a friend," he said holding up one finger to signal his first point. He raised another, "Two, she's Poppy's sister, so she can't be that bad. Three, she may not have even recognized me."

"Harry, you're one of the most famous people in Britain, if you're not wearing a disguise you should assume everybody recognizes you."

"Tonks, calm down, it'll be fine," he assured her.

Tonks seemed torn for a moment, as if unsure what to do, but nodded in agreement as she saw the stubborn look in his eye. "Fine, but I'm going to go stand outside and keep an eye on things."

Harry shook his head as she walked out of the room and took up her position beside the door, glaring at everyone who passed by. He decided to focus on his Occlumency exercises, hoping that they would block out any post-attack visions as he waited for the healer to return, but his concentration was interrupted by a groan from the bed in front of him.

OoOoO

Susan groaned as she regained consciousness. Her mind seemed like it was shrouded in fog as she tried to remember where she was and what happened. She remembered talking with her Aunt, her first real chance to sit and have a discussion with her since she had returned home from school.

Her eyes popped open, there had been an attack! The last thing she remembered was two Death Eaters standing over her, about to kill her before someone stopped them. She groaned again in pain as she tried to force herself into a sitting position. She stopped as a hand gently rested itself on her shoulder and she looked up to find an older woman in lime-green robes leaning over her.

"Ms. Bones, I must ask you to calm down and not to move, you are currently in the hospital. While your injuries are not too severe, too much movement could aggravate them, so I need you to lay back and relax." Susan let herself fall back into her pillow and relax as her eyes took in the room around her. The healer grabbed the first potion from the bedside, "Here, take this, it should help with the headache," she said, handing it to her.

Susan refocused on the woman standing above her, took the potion and quickly swallowed it, a look of disgust passing across her face as she did. The look quickly passed, to be replaced with one of relief as the fog and some of the pain quickly left her mind.

"There, that should help with the concussion," said the Healer, before handing her another potion, "and here is some Skele-Gro for the broken bones. Oh don't look at me like that, I'm sure you wouldn't prefer the broken bones," Susan scowled, unsure whether or not she agreed. She had taken Skele-Gro when she had broken her arm as a child and remembered it being both painful and disgusting. She drank it nonetheless, forcing it down before the healer handed her a third potion. "And this one should help with the soreness from the Cruciatus," she said, watching Susan drain the last potion before reclaiming the empty vial. "Now, there have been a number of other attacks, so I must be going, but if you need anything or something feels wrong, do not be afraid to have your boyfriend here call for a healer."

'Boyfriend,' she thought to herself, 'but I don't have a boy-' she cut off as she noticed the other person in the room.

"Wait, I'm not her-" but he cut off as she had already left the room. She noticed him shake his head, before returning his attention to her. She recognized him immediately. What was Harry Potter doing in her hospital room and why did the healer think they were dating?

"What happened?" she asked with a wince as the Skele-Gro began to do it's work.

"There was an attack on your house and you were injured. We brought you to the hospital."

"We?" she asked looking around the room, as if expecting another person to pop up from behind the curtains.

"Tonks and I," Harry said, gesturing towards the door, "she's standing guard outside." She looked towards the door and could just make out a woman with pink hair standing beside the door, watching people suspiciously as they walked by.

"What about my aunt, is she alright?"

She looked at Harry as he glanced around uncertainly, "I'm not sure, we came straight here after we found you," he stopped as she jerked in pain, "Are you okay? Do you need the healer?"

She gritted her teeth through the pain that suddenly assailed her before quickly dissipating, "No, it's gone." She looked up at him, "How did you know we needed help?"

She watched as he looked away from her, fidgeting under her gaze, "We got some information just as your wards fell, we came as soon as we could."

She was about to continue questioning him when her body was wracked by another burst of pain. Harry was at the door before she could stop him, "Tonks, go get Clark," he said before he coming back to check on her. She grabbed his hand and squeezed as the pain intensified for a moment, before it dissipated again.

The healer came in a moment later and Harry moved to the side to allow her access to her patient. Susan watched as she waved her wand over her, muttering an incantation. After a minute she stopped and looked down, "Hmm... it looks like you're experiencing some aftershocks from your Cruciatus exposure."

She turned her head as Harry spoke to the healer, "Is there anything you can do?" he asked.

Healer Clark shook her head, "I'm sorry, but no. Normally the third potion I gave her should relieve the pain, but it doesn't fully effective on some people. How long were you held under the curse?"

A small spasm of pain shot through Susan, "I don't know, it felt like forever," she replied truthfully.

She turned towards Harry as he answered, "Only a few seconds I think, I didn't see it, but I heard her scream."

The healer nodded at him, seemingly relieved, "Alright, with such a mild exposure, the after effects should only last for an hour, maybe two at most."

Susan gaped at her in disbelief, "Mild exposure?" she asked, getting angry, "That was supposed to be mild exposure? I've never felt anything like that in my life!" she said.

"I know it seems unbelievable," the healer said, looking down sympathetically at the girl on the bed, "but trust me, it could have been much worse," Susan noticed the healer's sympathetic gaze move over to Harry, who looked away sheepishly.

The healer smiled at her, "Now, I want you to relax until the worst of your symptoms pass and then try to get some sleep. If you need anything do not be afraid to ask." Both teenagers nodded as she left the the room.

As soon as the healer left Susan saw Harry walked towards the door, "Wait," she said as he turned back towards her looking straight into her eyes, "please stay with me," she asked timidly. She didn't know him very well, but she didn't want to be alone right now.

He gave her a weak smile, "Don't worry, I'm not leaving," he replied, "I was just going to tell Tonks to go leave a message for Dumbledore. He's probably realized I'm missing by now." He walked outside the room and spoke quietly to their pink haired guard. She frowned at him and they argued for a minute, before she nodded and left in a hurry. He walked back into the room and settled into the chair beside her bed, "Tonks is going to go tell Dumbledore where we are and then find out what happened to your Aunt."

They sat in silence, broken only by the occasional whimper as she was assaulted by another wave of pain. She noticed quickly that her spasms were becoming weaker and further apart. 'I guess she wasn't lying when she said mild Cruciatus exposure,' she thought to herself, as the pain of her last spasm left her. Her mouth opened into a wide yawn and she could feel her eyelids dropping. It wasn't long before sleep claimed her.

OoOoO

Harry sat in his chair in the corner watching the door carefully with his wand clenched tightly in his hand. He looked down at the girl sleeping on the bed in front of him before returning his gaze to the door. It had been more than an hour since Tonks had left and he was beginning to get a little nervous. If anyone knew he was there they could come for him at any moment, yet he couldn't leave Susan by herself, because she could be a target too.

He felt a massive burst of relief as Tonks finally came into the room, "Wotcher Harry," she said, striding through the door.

"Tonks, what took you so long?" he asked as he rushed to greet her.

"Sorry Harry, had to be lectured by Dumbledore. And then again by Mad-Eye," she said impatiently.

Harry looked back at her guiltily, "Err.. I guess that's my fault, sorry about that."

Tonks sighed and shook her head, "It's alright Harry, it turned out for the best. Besides, I did say I wouldn't keep you caged in at Grimmauld Place."

Harry nodded. He knew he'd still be in for a lecture, but they had been smart about their attack and hadn't taken any unnecessary risks, so he hoped it wouldn't be too bad.

"Is my Aunt okay?" Harry turned his head, noticing that Susan had woken up at some point in their discussion.

Harry nodded as Tonks looked at him, seemingly asking whether or not she should answer, "Well she's in rough shape. It was a little touch and go for a while there, but the healers say she is going to make it."

"What happened?" Susan asked, sitting up with only a small groan of discomfort.

Tonks hesitated, chewing on her lip as she tried to decide what to tell her, so Harry took over, "Voldemort attacked your house along with some Death Eaters," he said, Susan flinching at the sound of the name. Tonks glared at him, "What?" he asked, "Would you want it kept from you? She deserves to know."

Tonks sighed, looking over at the girl laying on the bed, "Fine, I'll give you the short version. You-Know-Who attacked with a dozen Death Eaters and your Aunt managed to hold them off until Dumbledore showed up with some reinforcements, but she was injured in the fight."

"Was anyone else hurt?" Harry asked, worried about Remus.

"All the Aurors guarding the Manor were killed, and Kingsley was a little banged up, but he should be fine in a day or two," she said after a moment.

"So Moony is alright?" he asked.

She nodded, "No worse than you, just some small cuts and bruises."

"Did they capture any more Death Eaters?" he asked.

Tonks shook her head, "No, but two of them are dead, on top of the one we found at the rear entrance."

Harry nodded, he supposed it would be too much to hope for to capture more Death Eaters while also dealing with Voldemort. "So how come it's just you that came back? I was expecting Dumbledore to send half the Order to make sure I wasn't hurt."

"Awful high opinion of yourself you have there Harry," she joked. Harry just rolled his eyes as she continued, "He thought about it, but I convinced him that seeing as no one knows you're here, that it would be safer for me to get you without drawing attention to ourselves."

He frowned as he noticed the scared look on Susan's face, "Tonks I'm not leaving Susan here by herself, I told you that before you left."

She just nodded impatiently, "Yeah, I heard you the first time, that's why we're taking her with us as soon as she's cleared to leave," she turned as Healer Clark strode through the doorway, "which will hopefully be right now."

They waited in silence as the healer waved her wand at Susan, before returning it to her pocket and addressing her, "Well your health seems to have improved enough for you to be released, though I would prefer that you stayed for observation," she said, scowling as she looked over at the Auror, "Your Aunt however, requested that you leave as soon as possible with Auror Tonks."

"So she's okay?" Susan asked worriedly.

"She will need to remain here for a week at the very least, but she will recover. As for you, I recommend you take it easy for the next few days. I want you to relax and get lots of rest, and if you have any more episodes of pain you should go see my sister," she said, causing Susan to look at her confused until she saw Harry mouthing, 'Pomfrey.'

Susan nodded and slowly got out of the bed, wavering as she made it to her feet. Harry quickly moved beside her, allowing her to steady herself on him. They made their way outside before Tonks turned to him, "Alright, we'll need to go to the park across the street," she said putting a hand on his shoulder.

Harry looked at the girl beside him, "Are you ready?" She nodded and he looked at Tonks, giving a countdown before spinning in place, focusing on the park across from Grimmauld Place.

They arrived with a small crack and Harry steadied her before crossing the street onto the sidewalk in front of #12. Tonks handed a small slip of parchment to Susan, who read it before looking up in shock as a house seemed to materialize from in between its neighbors. Tonks quickly led them inside before turning with a flourish, "Welcome to Number 12 Grimmauld Place."


	9. Teenage Rebellion

**Chapter 9**

Teenage Rebellion

Harry turned to look at Susan as she gaped at the entry hall to Grimmauld Place, taking in the peeling wallpaper, the threadbare carpet and the tattered old paintings. He noticed the look on her face, something between confusion, curiosity and distaste.

"Where are we?" she asked loudly, trying to take in her surroundings.

"Shhhh!" Tonks put a finger to her lips, "not so loud, we don't want to wake up Mrs. Black," she whispered as she backed up, motioning for them to follow her. Harry tried to stop her, but was to late as she tripped over the troll leg umbrella stand sending her tumbling to the ground. He winced as the moth-eaten curtains flew apart.

"MUDBLOODS and BLOOD-TRAITORS! HOW DARE YOU DEFILE MY HOUSE-"

Harry ran to the curtains, and tried to tug them shut, "Shut your mouth you miserable old hag!" he shouted. Tonks quickly jumped to her feet and grabbed the other side and with some effort they managed to close them long enough for her to place sticking and silencing charms on them. Harry shook his head in annoyance, "I swear, if we can't find the password to that stupid sticking charm, I'm going to tear down this entire wall."

Tonks chuckled at him, "I don't think Dumbledore would approve."

"Yeah, well Dumbledore can go suck a goat. I'm sick of that old bitch screaming every time someone walks by. I don't know how Sirius put up with it,"

Hearing a choking sound from behind him, he turned to see Susan staring at the both of them with her jaw wide open. "Wh- where are we?" she asked in shock.

"This is the headquarters of the Order of the Pheonix," explained Tonks. "you'll be staying here for the next few days."

Susan still looked confused, "Order of the Phoenix?" she asked.

"Anti-Voldemort group," Harry replied, causing a flinch from each of the women.

"This is the headquarters for an anti-You-Know-Who group?" she asked, looking around dubiously at the dark hallway.

Harry rolled his eyes at her avoidance of Voldemort's name. He knew most people were to afraid to say it, especially since they believed he had returned, but it was grating on him more and more. How could anyone hope to stand up to the dark tosser if they were to scared to even speak of him? "Yeah, Sirius allowed the Order to use it as headquarters."

Susan looked at him horrified, "Sirius? You mean Sirius Black the mass murderer?"

Harry glared at her, "No," he said through gritted teeth, "Sirius Black my godfather. Sirius Black, the man that spent twelve years in prison despite never being convicted of anything."

Harry looked at her in anger for another moment, the little color left draining from her face as she stammered, trying to apologize, before he remembered that she had no way of knowing that Sirius had been innocent all along. He looked over at Tonks, who seemed torn between anger at the slight to Sirius and disappointment in him for scaring a teenage girl that had just been tortured and nearly killed. He sighed and continued in a softer tone, "I know it must be shocking after everything you've probably heard or read, but Sirius was framed. He isn't one of Voldemort's supporters, he never betrayed my parents and he never murdered anyone."

"So Sirius Black is here?" she asked, looking only slightly less terrified than she had a moment before.

Harry felt his stomach sink as he shook his head, "No, he died a few weeks ago, during the battle in the Department of Mysteries."

Susan opened her mouth to ask another question, but Tonks cut her off, "I think this little game of 20 questions can wait until later. I'm sure Dumbledore is waiting in the kitchen for you Harry. I'll take Susan upstairs and get her settled into the girls room."

Harry nodded his head, grateful not to have to answer any more questions about his godfather and headed towards the kitchen, hoping to get the lectures out of the way quickly and maybe grab a snack before heading to bed. He walked into the kitchen to find the headmaster waiting at the table drinking tea, so Harry took the seat across from him.

There was no twinkle in his eye as he sat quietly gazing at Harry. Harry pushed down his nerves knowing that whatever happened, he had done what was right. If he hadn't gone to help Susan would have been killed and they wouldn't have four captured Death Eaters currently waiting to be interrogated by the Ministry.

The sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity before the headmaster spoke, "I am both proud and disappointed in you Harry," the headmaster said, watching the boy in front of him closely, "You managed to save Ms. Bones, yet you disobeyed a direct order and put yourself in danger."

Harry looked across at the old man, "I did what I had to do, sir. You were outnumbered, I thought it would be best to even the odds a little bit," Harry said, silently fuming at the old man. It was like he didn't think Harry was capable of taking care of himself.

"Harry, my boy, we had everything under control, there was no need for you to put yourself in such danger."

"Really?" Harry asked angrily, "So if Tonks and I hadn't been there, one of you would have saved Susan? And how about the four Death Eaters we fought inside, would you still have been able to fight off Voldemort if they had joined with the rest? Somehow I doubt it. If I hadn't been there Susan would be dead, maybe her aunt as well."

"And that would have been a tragedy Harry, but it would be a much greater tragedy if something were to happen to you. You know the prophecy, if something were to happen to you, Voldemort would win. You must remember the big picture."

"So what, I'm supposed to hide away and do nothing?" Harry asked, the anger that he felt whenever he talked to the headmaster rising, "Am I supposed to run and hide and hope that one day he drops dead because I'm still alive? I need experience if I'm going to stand a chance against him one day."

"Harry, my boy, you are still a student. You are too young to be fighting a war. You should enjoy the little bit of childhood you have left."

Harry looked at him as if he were senile, which at this point he wouldn't find overly surprising, "Childhood?" he asked, "I've never had a childhood. You took that away from me when you sent me to live with people that hated my guts just because I had the indecency to live. I've already been fighting this war for five years, I won't quit now."

"Harry, it was for the best-"

"Who's best professor, because it certainly wasn't mine. I never had a childhood because you sent me to be starved, mocked and beaten, and now you try to force me to accept the childhood that I've outgrown," Harry raged at the old man in front of him, "well you can take your childhood and shove it where the sun don't shine old man."

Dumbledore gave him a disapproving look, "I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this Harry, but you leave me no choice. As of now, you are not to leave this house for the rest of the summer."

Harry's jaw dropped as he looked at the headmaster seated across from him, "Excuse me? What right do you have to keep me locked up?"

"With Sirius and the Dursley's gone, who do you think is your legal guardian Harry? You knew you were supposed to remain here, yet you disobeyed and now you must face the consequences. You are not to leave Grimmauld Place until it is time to return to school. This includes Sirius' will reading."

Harry was so angry at the headmaster that he almost missed his last sentence, "Will reading, when is this will reading?"

"In two days. You will sign a parchment allowing me to claim your inheritance on your behalf."

Harry opened his mouth to argue, but slammed it shut instead and stormed from the room, upending the table and throwing the headmaster's tea flying to the ground. He stormed up the stairs, past Tonks as she tried to speak to him and into his room, slamming the door behind him. He threw himself on his bed as his mind raged, furious over the fact that the headmaster would ban him from his godfathers' will reading only days before, when the thought struck him. Why had Dumbledore waited until two days before, after he had a reason to ban Harry from going and after the Order meeting to inform him of his godfather's will reading? Wouldn't the Order meeting have been the perfect time to have told him about it? It would have been easy to arrange for guards with everyone there. Harry sat down on the edge of his bed as he began to think. Why would Dumbledore have put off telling him unless... Had he always intended to stop Harry from going? His thoughts were cut off as a knock came from his door and it opened slowly.

Harry looked up as the gray haired werewolf stuck his head in through the doorway, "Hey pup, Tonks said you were mad, I figured I should come see if you wanted to talk about it."

Harry sighed and fell back onto his bed, looking up at the ceiling, "Dumbledore just banned me from going to Sirius' will reading. I didn't even know there was a will reading. How could you not have told me Moony?"

Remus looked away, seemingly uncomfortable, "I'm sorry pup, Dumbledore made Tonks and I promise not to bring it up unless you asked. He said it was better not to remind you of Sirius' death. I assumed he had already told you about it and you had taken it poorly. I wanted to talk with you about it, to try to help you get over it, but I promised."

Remus took a step back when he noticed the look on Harry's face as he felt his rage at the meddling headmaster reigniting. Now that he looked back, Tonks and Remus had been acting strangely, both constantly looking at him as though they wanted to talk to him about something. He forced himself to calm down as he noticed Remus looking at him apprehensively "It's alright Remus, I believe you. I noticed you and Tonks both seemed to want to tell me something."

Remus looked at him strangely, "Really? Why didn't you ask what it was?"

"Well I just assumed you two were debating whether or not to tell me that you had started dating," he said, hoping that teasing Remus would help cheer him up.

Remus' face went beat red and his mouth began flapping, "But we're- How did you-?"

Harry grinned at the older man, "How did I know? I didn't, but you just confirmed it for me." He laughed as Remus hung his head in defeat, "What do you two both think I'm oblivious? I mean you guys do a good job of hiding it, but you've slipped up once or twice."

Remus shifted uncomfortably, "Well no, I just didn't want to tell anyone yet. I'm not really sure it's going anywhere..."

"Why, what's wrong with Tonks?" Harry asked, unsure why the werewolf wouldn't want a relationship with the young metamorphmagus. Not only was she beautiful, but they got along so well.

"Nothing's wrong with Tonks, it's just.." he trailed off, pointing at his scars.

Harry looked at him for a moment before he caught on, "Your furry little problem?"

Remus smiled for a moment at the old moniker, before sighing deeply and looking down, "Yes Harry. Soon enough, she'll come to her senses and we'll be done. It will be easier to go back to the way things were if no one else knows about us."

Harry looked sadly at the old werewolf, the old wolf's problems causing him to momentarily forget his own, "Moony, Tonks isn't like that. She couldn't care less about your furry little problem. She likes you for who you are. For that matter so do I," he grinned, "though obviously not in the same way."

Remus couldn't help but smile, "Well I'd certainly hope not," a look of uncertainty crossed his face for a moment before he continued, "so you aren't jealous or anything?"

Harry shook his head, "Why would you ask that?"

The older man ran his fingers through his hair as he shrugged, "You two are so close and I've seen the way you look at her. "

"Well she's beautiful and I love spending time with her, but... I've never even had a real relationship before. I think it would be better if I were to date someone my own age."

The werewolf raised an eyebrow, "You do realize you are closer to her age than I am, don't you?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "Yeah, but you're both adults. And when it comes to relationships, she might even be more mature than you Moony. Unlike you, she hasn't been avoiding them for the past decade. I might be mature for my age, but when it comes to relationships, I'm still a kid."

"So you don't mind?"

"Of course not Moony, in fact I insist," he grinned mischievously, "you can keep her occupied until I gain enough experience to sweep her off her feet," he teased, prompting the old Marauder to burst out laughing, before telling him that he didn't stand a chance against the old wolf. They bantered back and forth for a while before returning to more serious matters.

"So Harry, what do you plan to do?" Remus asked.

Harry shrugged, "Well, I haven't really got to do the whole teenage rebellion thing yet. I mean breathing was practically rebelling against the Dursley's, so that doesn't really count, and Sirius was more likely to encourage me than anything. So now that Dumbledore is apparently my guardian, I guess I can finally get it out of my system."

Remus looked at him in shock for a moment, clearly surprised that he was no longer following Dumbledore's orders, "And how do you plan to do that?"

"Well," Harry said, looking thoughtful, "first thing I suppose is for us to go to that will reading. After that I guess I'll play it by ear."

"Us?" Remus asked with a frown, "And how exactly did I get involved in this?"

"Come on Moony, you know you're as sick of Dumbles manipulations as I am. I know he means well, but he treats everyone, especially me, like they're chess pieces, to be used and sacrificed as necessary."

Remus looked at him thoughtfully for a moment before nodding, "Alright, I'm in, but only if we bring in Tonks as well."

Harry gave him an incredulous look, "Do I look like an idiot? If she found out we planned this without her, she would string us both up by our toes."

Remus chuckled at the thought as he stood to leave, "Alright, well I'll let her know and we can start planning tomorrow. Meanwhile, you should get some rest."

Harry rolled his eyes, "Of course mother," he said mockingly. Remus didn't look back as he let out another chuckle and left the room.


	10. Reading and Revelations

A/N To respond to some questions and comments-

Commando678- My assumption is that the Fidelius doesn't stop people from saying the address, it stops others from being able to understand it. I'm pretty sure that people other than Dumbledore say the words Grimmauld Place in canon, so I assumed that anyone that doesn't know the secret wouldn't be able to remember what was said

kdda- Yes, I have actually uploaded this here before. I decided to rewrite the story because #1 I didn't like the title and #2 I did exactly the thing I didn't want to and started giving Harry too many powers (I decided to take out his metamorph powers and slow down his other training a little bit. I'm trying to make a powerful, but not Super Harry, the sort of wizard that could maybe one day match ol' snake lips) and emancipation, which I didn't think was really necessary and instead went in a different direction for his summer training.

Mrwinter1- While it would be rebellious to tell Dumbledore to shove it, it would give the old man a chance at trying some other way to stop Harry from attending the will reading. Plus it would ruin the fun.

Half Alien- Sorry, I won't be using those _exact_ words

OoOXylionOoO- I really love the Harry/Tonks pairing too. Who knows, maybe Harry is willing to do a little wolfie style to get with a sexy metamorph... Okay, so that won't happen, seeing as I'm pretty much writing Remus as his sort of favorite uncle, so that would be just wrong. Still, doesn't mean Harry/Tonks can't happen. In the end I still haven't decide on a final pairing or if there will even be one.

**Chapter 10**

Reading and Revelations

Two days later Harry was frowning at the mirror, "There you go Harry," Tonks said as she finished changing his hair, a large smile across her face. "Now just the scar," she said tapping her wand against his jagged scar, causing it to fade. It was still visible to anyone that looked close enough, but if a Death Eater was able to inspect his forehead that closely he probably had more pressing concerns. "And the eyes," Tonks said, tapping him on the bridge of his nose. He looked in the mirror and found a pair of blue eyes staring back at him. He grinned and quickly thanked Tonks before opening the door and leaving the bathroom.

"Woah," Susan said as he came out of the bathroom, "I hardly even recognize you," she said looking awed at his transformation.

He smiled back at her, "Just wait until you see what she'll do for you," he said, giving her a little push towards the bathroom. That was all the invitation she needed as she rushed in. Harry grinned and turned towards his room to grab his shopping list before heading downstairs to wait. If everything went well today they would go shopping to replace his wizarding possessions, something he had been looking forward to for days. He sat down on a couch and began practicing his Occlumency exercises while he waited, to make up for skipping them the day before.

Almost twenty minutes passed before the girls came down the stairs. Susan had changed her usual hair style, her normally wavy red hair now straight and blonde, her brown eyes now blue. Tonks had also given her a tan, making her even harder to recognize, before morphing herself to look like her sister.

Remus emerged from the kitchen, "Everyone ready to go?" he asked, licking the last crumbs of his breakfast from his fingers as he did. The other three nodded, "Alright, I'll go make sure it's all clear," he said, before disappearing with a small pop. Harry, Tonks and Susan waited for a minute before a bolt of silver shot into the room, materializing into a silver Grim. The grim opened it's mouth and Remus' voice came out, "All clear," he said.

Tonks placed her hand on Susan's shoulder, "See you there Harry," she said before disappearing. Harry closed his eyes and concentrated on the Apparition point in Diagon Alley before turning and disappearing with a tiny pop.

"Wow Harry, that was almost silent," Susan said as she looked at him with a little bit of awe as he opened his eyes to find himself standing amidst the hustle and bustle of Diagon Alley.

"Oi, watch the names _Amy_," Tonks said, emphasizing the name as she looked suspiciously at passersby, making sure none were eavesdropping on them.

Susan clapped her hand over her mouth, "Sorry Jim, Andie," she said, looking at both her companions remembering their covers.

Tonks shook her head, suspiciously gazing at passersby, "It's alright, just be careful from now on. Come on, let's head to Gringotts," she said, turning and heading towards the bank as she did. Each keeping a hand on their wand as they headed towards the bank, they passed Remus who was pretending to look at the wares on display in a shop window before he turned and followed just a little ways behind them. None of them relaxed until they were inside the bank, luckily making it quickly and without incident. Once inside the doors they ducked to the side and quickly undid their disguises, allowing Remus to catch up with them.

Remus took the lead as they moved towards one of the goblins seated behind the counter, "We're here for the Black will reading."

The goblin in question bared it's teeth at them for a moment before jumping down from its raised chair, "This way," was it's only response as it hurried off in the opposite direction from the carts that lead down to the vaults. Harry followed along with the others as they were led through a maze of corridors, before they ended up in an ornate room with a podium at one end. Harry looked around, taking note of the people that had already arrived. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley sat on one side of the room, with Tonks' parents, while Draco and Narcissa Malfoy sat on the opposite side deep in conversation, likely plotting how to steal all of Sirius' money.

Harry shook his head and went to take a seat over by the Weasley's, followed by Remus, Tonks and Susan. Mrs. Weasley, hearing the footsteps headed in their direction, looked over, bounding out of her seat to race over and wrap Harry up in one of her trademark Weasley hugs.

"Harry, dear, what are you doing here? Professor Dumbledore said you weren't coming. He said it's too dangerous for you to be out."

Harry returned the hug for a moment, before pushing himself from her grasp, "It's fine Mrs. Weasley, I changed my mind. I decided at the last minute that I couldn't miss it," he half-lied, giving her the impression that it had originally been his decision not to attend, "I never got a chance to say goodbye to Sirius, seeing as he didn't have a funeral, so I thought maybe I could pay my last respects today," he said, his eyes watering at the thought of saying goodbye to his godfather helping to sell his deception.

Mrs. Weasley looked at him with pity for a moment before drawing him into another, slightly less bone-crushing hug, "I'm sorry Harry. I know how much you loved your godfather, I'm sure Dumbledore will understand." Harry smiled, happy that he had managed to avoid another lecture from her. He loved her like family, but he wouldn't be surprised to learn that one of her ancestors had been a banshee.

Harry turned as Tonks began to speak, "Speak of the devil," she said, gesturing towards the doors which had opened up again to admit the headmaster and the goblin Griphook, carrying a thick envelope. Harry had to stifle a laugh as Dumbledore gave a start, noticing Harry as soon as he walked in. He walked over to where Harry was seated, the usual twinkle once again missing from his eyes.

"Mr. Potter, a word please," he said, immediately turning and walking to the back corner of the room. The goblin that had followed him into the room gave him an annoyed look, clearly frustrated at the delay, but Harry grinned as he stood and slowly made his way over, deliberately taking his time in an effort to annoy the headmaster. Harry knew from experience that it took a lot to get under the headmaster's skin, so he was going to fully enjoy it.

"Can I help you Albus?" he asked as he finally made his way over.

Dumbledore looked at him, "Albus?" he asked in a clipped tone, arching his eyebrow.

"Well of course Albus, if you're supposed to be my guardian, I figured we should be less formal," Harry replied, refusing to be intimidated by the old man, "Headmaster and Professor just seem so... cold."

The headmaster watched him for a moment before he spoke again, "I suppose that will be acceptable Harry while we are away from school. That, however, is not what I wished to speak to you about. I told you that I would handle the will reading for you Harry, so I must ask why you felt it necessary to ignore me?"

Harry looked at him and shrugged, suppressing the grin he felt, "Well headmaster, I thought it might be difficult for you to claim my inheritance for me."

"Why is that Harry? It is a very simple process. As I explained to you yesterday, the form you signed gives me the ability to accept your inheritance on your behalf," he said, pulling out the form as he did.

Harry looked at the form for a moment, unable to suppress a grin, before looking back at the headmaster and taking on an innocent tone, "Well Albus, I was worried that maybe the goblins wouldn't allow it, seeing as I didn't actually sign my name on there." Dumbledore looked at him in shock for a moment before turning his gaze to the paper in his hand. He looked at the signature only to find that it did not in fact read Harry Potter, and instead read He's a Poofter. Harry burst out laughing as the look on his headmaster's face changed from shock, to confusion, to outrage.

Dumbledore recovered quickly, "That will be enough Mr. Potter. I think it time you returned to headquarters."

"I don't think so _Professor_," he said, emphasizing the title, "I think I'd rather stay."

"I think you are forgetting something Mr. Potter. As your guardian-"

Harry interrupted, "And I think you're forgetting something Dumbledore. I'm a teenager. As I'm sure you're aware, being the headmaster of a school filled with them, we seldom do as we're told," he said, turning around and heading back towards his seat. "Now come on, let's get this show on the road," he said to the goblin standing at the front of the room tapping it's foot impatiently.

Griphook quickly pulled an envelope from the large stack he was carrying and opened it before any more interruptions could occur and began reading, forcing the headmaster to quietly take his seat. "_I, Sirius Black, being of sound mind and body, hereby declare this to be my last will and testament._" Here the goblin stopped, reading the next line and furrowing his brow in disdain, "W_ell now the formal shite is out of the way, let's get down to the business of giving away all my stuff_," Harry looked over at Tonks as she giggled beside him. "_To Arthur and Molly Weasley, for taking such good care of my godson, I leave 10,000 galleons. Molly I know we disagreed on a lot of things, but I was always thankful for the way you looked after Harry and I hope you will continue to do so. Just remember that he is a young man now, capable of making his own decisions,_" Harry looked over at Mrs Weasley, who had burst into tears. Griphook continued, "_To Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, I also leave 10,000 galleons each for being there for Harry when I couldn't be_," at this point Harry interrupted.

"Um, excuse me Griphook, will Ron and Hermione be able to claim their inheritance, seeing as they aren't here?"

The goblin sneered down at him, "Mr Weasley's parents are able to claim his for him. Ms Granger, however, has forfeit her claim."

"So what happens to it then?" he asked.

"It will return to the estate," Griphook said, obviously annoyed by what he deemed stupid questions, "now if that is all, may I continue?" Harry nodded his head and the goblin continued reading, "_To Albus Dumbledore, I leave the Black family library. Many of the books there should never see the light of day and I know of no one safer to make sure they stay locked away_," Dumbledore nodded, though he looked as if he were dreading what was to come, which confused Harry as he knew the gift of rare books was second on the old wizard's wish list only to a pair of warm wool socks.

"_To Andromeda Tonks, I hereby reinstate you to the Black family and leave you 10,000 galleons_," Harry looked over at Tonks' mother, who was now hugging her husband. Tonks had a large smile on her face as she beamed at her mother, obviously ecstatic at being welcomed back to her family. "_To my favorite cousin, Nymphadora Tonks, haha, can't hit me now can you, Nymphie_," Tonks rolled her eyes at Sirius' childishnesse, "_I'd like to thank you for all the time you've spent keeping me company over the last few months. I wish I could have been there for you as you grew up, teaching my little cousin to prank and hexing any of the boys that tried to take advantage of you._ _I also reinstate you to the Black family and leave you 25,000 galleons along with my motorbike, under the condition that you teach Harry how to ride it,_" Harry beamed at that. He had wanted to ride that motorcycle again ever since he had found out it was real.

"_To my godson Harry Potter, I leave 100,000 galleons and my family home. Take care of Moony for me, maybe help him realize a certain pink-haired auror isn't hung up on his furry little problem_," Harry grinned as he looked over to see both Remus and Tonks' faces broke from their thoughtful gaze to flush with embarrassment, he didn't think that request would be much of a problem, "_and most importantly pup, take care of yourself. Find a cute girl and make yourself happy. You can't let Voldemort dictate what you do with your life, you need to live it the way you want to._ _I love you Harry, and I'm going to miss you, even though I hope we don't see each other for a good long time yet."_

"_Last, but definitely not least, to Remus Lupin, my brother in all but blood, I leave 100,000 galleons and all of my clothes. I can't name you Harry's guardian directly, but I did find a loophole. With that in mind, I name you Regent of the House of Black. I know it won't be easy Moony, but I need you to take care of Harry for me. Teach him what you can, but allow him to make his own decisions. Don't let anyone manipulate him, whether they be psychotic Dark Lord, incompetent Minister or meddling headmaster._" Harry looked over at Remus, whose eyes were filled with tears. Harry had an idea of how close the two Marauders had become in the last year, so he knew how much it meant to Remus to have that sort of trust from his last remaining childhood friend.

Harry looked over at Dumbledore, who sat with shoulders slumped, defeated. He understood now why the headmaster had tried to keep him away from the will reading. He would have tried to talk Remus into keeping Harry in the dark and under control. He felt his respect for the headmaster drop yet another rung as he attempted to glare a hole through him. His attempts were interrupted however as the goblin continued the will reading.

"_Now as per family bylaw, the position of head of the Black family, along with all other remaining assets, will go to the closest remaining male relative." _

At this point Malfoy stood up, cutting off the goblin, "Ha, suck it Potter. You may have gotten a little gold, but even your mangy godfather couldn't keep me from what is mine in the end." Harry looked over at Malfoy, having forgotten he was there. He felt his mouth fall open in shock. He couldn't believe that Sirius would allow Malfoy of all people to become head of his family. He was about to respond when Griphook cut him off.

"I was not finished Mr. Malfoy," he said, staring at Malfoy until he returned to seat, before returning his eyes to the parchment in front of him. "_Now, as I'm sure Draco has stood up and made an ass of himself by now,_" everyone in the room looked over at Malfoy, then at each other before laughing quietly to themselves, "_I should probably inform him that as things stand he is NOT the closest remaining Black relative._"

Malfoy stood up, "What is that mutt talking about, of course I am," he shouted.

Griphook just looked at him with a sneer, "Be seated Mr. Malfoy or you will be removed from these proceedings."

He continued reading from the will as Malfoy sat down, "_He is not the closest remaining male Black, because as of an hour ago, he, along with his mother and aunt Bellatrix were all formally disowned from the Black family_," Malfoy looked like he was about to explode, "_which brings me to the last piece of the agenda. It is an offer Draco. An offer to reinstate you into the family, which would in turn make you the heir and the recipient of the bulk of the Black estates._" Malfoy seemed to calm down, while Harry watched, curious as to what Sirius was playing at. "_In exchange for being reinstated to the family, you must make an Unbreakable Vow to Harry before you leave this room. A vow not to join or support Voldemort. Instead you must vow to join the fight against him and bring honor back to the Black family._" Harry stared at the goblin in awe. He couldn't believe it. Never would he have thought Sirius could be so brilliant, so cunning, so _Slytherin_. Malfoy either ditched Voldemort, stopping the flow of his immense wealth from funding his attacks or he outed himself as one of his supporters. A large grin spread across his face as he looked around the room, watching peoples faces as they came to the same conclusion.

Harry turned to watch Malfoy stare at the goblin in horror, "Surely he can't be serious."

"Of course he's Sirius, don't you even know your uncle's name?" Harry laughed completely enjoying Sirius' last prank. He looked over at Remus, who rolled his eyes at his lame joke.

"Shut up Potter, that mangy mutt can't do this to me, I am the rightful heir to the Black fortune."

Griphook spoke up, "He is well within his rights as head of house to disown or reinstate any family member he wishes. If you wish to become head of the house of Black you must make the Unbreakable Vow."

"And if I don't?" Draco fumed.

Griphook sneered at him, "Then the head of family Black will go to the next closest male relative, which, due to his great-grandmother having been born a Black, just happens to be Mr. Potter here."

Harry's eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't known that he was so closely related to Sirius.

Malfoy glared at the goblin for a full minute before he turned to Harry, "This isn't over Potter."

Harry just smirked at him, unable to resist the urge to taunt his schoolyard nemesis, "No, of course it isn't, you still haven't made your decision. So what will it be Draco? Or should I call you cousin?"

Malfoy gave him a last glare before turning and exiting the room in a rush, slamming the door behind him. "Well I guess that's a no," Harry laughed as he watched Mrs. Malfoy hurry to catch up with her son. He turned to the goblin, "So how much exactly is the remaining assets?"

Griphook looked at him and smirked, "The Black family wealth has dwindled in recent years, so with Ms. Grangers inheritance going unclaimed, it is a little over 10000 galleons."

Harry burst out laughing, "So Malfoy just wasted his morning and outed himself as a Death Nibbler over 10000 galleons that he didn't even get?" He couldn't help it, that was just about the funniest thing he had heard in his life. "Merlin, and here I was thinking Padfoot had lost his mind."

Moony grinned back at him, "Well, Padfoot did always have a thing for knocking self important people down a peg. I'm sure he would to happy to know his last prank went over so well." Susan and Tonks were beside him trying to catch their breaths as they calmed their laughter while Dumbledore walked over to the group.

"Well, now that this is done, I think it is time for you to return home Harry."

Harry's laughter cut off abruptly. He couldn't believe the nerve of the old goat. "Sorry _professor_," he said, emphasizing the title, "but we have plans for this afternoon." Harry turned and moved to walk past him, Dumbledore however had other plans as he moved in front of him again.

"Harry, I really think it would be best if-"

"I don't really care what you think, you old fool," he noticed Susan's hand fly to her mouth and Remus' eyes widen in shock as they listened. Even Tonks seemed surprised by the way he casually disrespected the headmaster. "You knew, didn't you, that Sirius had made Remus my guardian? And yet you had the nerve to try to stop me from coming here and finding out, so that you could control me the same way you have been for the last five bloody years. Well I'll tell you something professor, I'm not your puppet anymore."

"Harry I-"

"Save your excuses for someone that cares. Now if you'll excuse us, we have business to attend to," he said brushing past the gaping headmaster and leading his small group back towards the bank entrance with the intention of taking a look at his new vault.


	11. Disguises and Discussions

**Chapter 11**

Disguises and Discussions

Malfoy watched the werewolf from the shadows near the entryway of the bank as an old woman walked past him. It had been almost an hour since Potter had disappeared beneath the bank, more than enough time for his mother to alert his father and a few other trustworthy Death Eaters. Now he just had to wait for Potter to exit the bank, then they would kill the mangy half-breed, along with the half-blood slut and grab Potter and Bones. Then the Dark Lord would welcome him into the inner circle with open arms.

Another ten minutes passed, with no one else leaving the vault carts before anything else happened. A silver wolf came rushing through the bank, stopping before the werewolf and opening its mouth before dissipating into silver fog. Draco watched as Lupin nodded and turned, walking quickly towards the exit. 'Good,' he thought to himself, 'with the werewolf gone, this will be even easier,' he settled into his hiding spot, hardly daring to blink as he watched the track down to the vaults. Draco was so focused on the mine cart that he didn't notice his former professor glance his way and grin.

OoOoO

Harry and Susan followed closely behind the old lady, careful not to brush into anyone as they hurried down the alley, before ducking in between two shops. He pulled his invisibility cloak off them as the old woman shifted back into Tonks and removed the glamor from her robes that had made them look old and worn, before pulling them off to reveal the muggle attire beneath. Harry looked over at Susan who had quickly followed suit, before removing the robes Tonks had picked up for him yesterday, leaving him in a t-shirt and jeans.

Tonks quickly moved to the corner of the building and stuck her head around it, watching people walk past for a couple minutes before returning to the others and sending off a quick patronus to let Remus know they were fine and it was safe for him to return to headquarters, "Well it doesn't look like we were followed," she said grinning, "that was a pretty good idea Jimmy."

Harry grinned, "Well I couldn't risk dragging a pair of such beautiful women into a fight, now could I?"

Tonks smiled at him for a moment before a confused look crossed her face, "Wait, you dragged me into a fight two days ago," she replied, looking at him crossly while Susan watched them with a smile.

Harry considered that for a moment before he responded, "Okay, well maybe I can't risk getting into a fight today because of just one beautiful- OW!" Harry clutched his arm where Tonks had driven her fist into it, "It was a joke, Merlin, you'd think after I spent two weeks staring at your ass every morning you wouldn't be so self conscious..."

"Well you'd think that after two weeks of getting beat up, you would be able to take a punch," she retorted, rolling her eyes as she lead them from the alleyway. "So where to first?" she asked, looking over at her two companions, one giggling at the byplay between the two, while the other rubbed his shoulder.

Harry was the first to respond, "Well, I think we should head to Eyelops. If I don't get some owl treats soon, my life may become forfeit," he said, only half joking.

Tonks laughed, "I swear, that bird has you whipped," she said, shaking her head as she turned and led the way to the owl emporium, for which Harry was grateful. Now he just needed to give his purchases to his familiar to gain himself a stay of execution.

The second stop of the afternoon was to buy a new trunk, seeing as his had been destroyed along with the rest of his possessions. They quickly found one that would be perfect. It had three magically expanded compartments, each about three times the size of the trunk itself. One of the compartments even contained a large book shelf that he was certain Hermione would first be jealous of and then commandeer to house her always expanding personal library.

Their next stop was Madam Malkins, which turned out to be even more embarrassing than when he had gone shopping for muggle clothes with Tonks, seeing as he now had to deal with not one, but two shameless witches ogling him. They took him to a private room and removed his disguise, before forcing him to try on half the robes in the shop, constantly commenting on what would bring out his eyes, or show off his arms or his butt. By the time they finished he wasn't sure whether or not his dignity would ever recover. He was thankful to be finished nonetheless, as it gave him a chance to rest while Susan tried on a some clothes to hold her over until they could pick up her things. Harry could only groan softly as she walked out of the changing room to show Tonks a few of the more revealing ones and curse Hogwarts for it's bulky robes.

Once they finished at Madam Malkins they hurried across the street to buy Harry his first new pair of glasses since he was 7 years old, complete with charms to adjust to his eyesight, repel dirt and water and resist scratching. He exited the store, seeing the world in a whole new light, as everything came into focus. He grinned widely as he imagined the coming Quidditch season and how badly he was going to embarrass Malfoy this year.

They continued on, buying the rest of the school supplies he would need, including a cauldron and potion ingredients. He had initially balked at the idea, as he had no intention of subjecting himself to Snape's 'teaching', but had agreed once Tonks pointed out that just because he wasn't taking the class, didn't mean he wouldn't need to brew a potion at some point during the year.

Once they had acquired a cauldron, they headed over to Flourish and Blotts, where they bought a copy of every book he had used throughout his first five years at Hogwarts, with the obvious exceptions of the DADA book from the previous year and all of Lockhart's garbage, replacing them with some books Tonks had used or heard of during Auror training, before heading towards the Leaky Cauldron to pick up some take out for dinner. After exiting the Cauldron, they quickly apparated away, landing in the sitting room to find Remus lounging on one of the couches reading a book.

"So how did it go?" he asked, looking up from his book.

Tonks was the first to respond, "Great, we got everything we were looking for and didn't attract a second glance."

Remus stood and walked over to her, giving her a quick kiss before looking her up and down, "Well that I find hard to believe," he said.

Tonks' eyes widened and face flushed at the straightforwardness of the old Marauder, before cracking into a smile and pulling him down for a longer kiss, "Well aren't you just a flatterer? Did one of my rants finally get through to you?"

Remus laughed, "Actually you can thank Harry here. He reminded me that there are some people that can look past my furry little problem and that I should hang on to those people."

Tonks walked over to Harry and gave him a tight hug, squeezing the air out of his lungs, "Thanks Harry, for knocking some sense into him."

"You're welcome Tonks. It was a lot of work trying to knock sense into someone that thick-" Harry teased.

"HEY!" Remus said, looking affronted.

"-headed, but I'm sure you'll find a way to make it worth my while," he finished, giving her a lecherous grin and wiggling his eyebrows at her for a moment before breaking into a run up the stairs, an angry werewolf in hot pursuit.

The two girls just laughed and shook their heads as the boys ran up the stairs, before Tonks handed their bag of food to Susan, "Here, why don't you bring this into the kitchen and grab some plates and cutlery. I'm going to bring Harry's trunk up for him and make sure Remus doesn't hurt him too badly."

Susan made her way into the kitchen and got things ready for dinner. She didn't have to wait long for the others, as they came in a minute later, Remus and Tonks wearing matching smiles as Harry followed them, his head covered in long bubblegum pink hair. Susan couldn't help but break into laughs, causing both Remus and Tonks to do the same.

Harry glared at them, grumbling under his breath about 'mangy werewolves,' before turning away from the others and walking over to the corner where his owl rested on top of the cabinets, "Hey girl, got anything for me?" Hedwig opened one eye and looked at him for a moment, before turning her back on him and returning to her snooze, "Oh come on girl, don't be like that. I got something for you too," he said as he pulled three owl treats out of his pocket. Hedwig looked back at him and seeing the owl treats swooped down, landing on his shoulder. She quickly ate all three before giving him an affectionate nip on the finger, letting him know he was forgiven and offering her leg for him to remove the letter attached. Recognizing the handwriting, he quickly stuffed it into his pocket and joining the others at the table to eat, before racing up to his room to open his letter in private.

OoOoO

"Hello Professor McGonagall," Harry said as he stumbled out of the green flames.

"Hello Mr. Potter," replied the professor, looking up from her desk, "The recipe for the Animagus revealer potion is on the table over there," she said pointing to a table in the corner of the room. "I trust you brought everything you will require?"

"Yes Professor, I actually brought-" he cut off and turned as the fire turned green again, catching the falling metamorphmagus out of habit, stopping her from falling on her face as she tumbled from the fireplace.

"Sorry Harry," she said, brushing the soot off her clothes before turning to the professor and giving her a small wave, "Wotcher Minnie," she said cheerfully.

"Ms. Tonks," she replied dryly, "I didn't realize Mr. Potter had told you of our lessons."

Harry snorted, "If by told, you mean she read about them when she pulled your letter out of my hand, then yes."

McGonagall glared at the metamorph disapprovingly, "I did not realize that my handwriting was so poor that you could confuse Mr. Potters name for your own Ms. Tonks."

Tonks had the good grace to blush, "Well, I didn't know it was yours, I thought it was a love letter from a certain bushy-haired bookworm."

"Tonks I've told you, Hermione and I aren't dating, we're just friends," he replied, easily suppressing a small blush. It wasn't the first time she had tried to tease him about his best friend and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

"Yet," she said slyly, as Professor McGonagall looked on with a raised eyebrow and a slight smile, causing Harry to roll his eyes. "Besides, you should be happy I found out. You never would have been able to keep this a secret from-," she stopped and threw a hand over her mouth as Harry glared at her.

"To keep this from Mr. Lupin to avoid him finding out you were coming here to learn to become Animagi in order to keep him company during full moons?" supplied McGonagall.

Harry and Tonks both looked at her slack jawed for a moment, "Wait, how did you-?"

Professor McGonagall arched an eyebrow at him, "Mr. Potter, not only have I been teaching for decades, but I have taught both you and your parents. Did you really think you could fool me so easily?"

Harry was taken aback for a moment, "Well, when you say it like that, I guess not," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Why did you agree to teach me then?" he asked.

"I can think of no better reason to teach you to become an Animagus than to comfort a friend in their time of need Mr. Potter. And as I assume Ms. Tonks is here for the same reason," she paused, looking at Tonks who nodded in confirmation, "I am more than happy to teach her as well. In any case, as I am sure you would make the attempt with or without my help, I thought it would be safer if I were to instruct you," she said, giving Harry a stern glare.

Harry looked away, refusing to meet her eyes. It was scary how his Transfiguration professor always seemed to know what he was up to. "Thank you again Professor. We just need to decide what to tell Remus so that he doesn't start wondering why we disappear every couple days to spend time with you."

"See, I told you you'd never be able to keep this a secret," Tonks teased.

"And you can?" he asked.

Tonks gave him a smug look, "Of course I can Harry. In fact it's already taken care of."

Harry looked at her quizzically, "Really, how?"

"I told him we were going to talk to Minnie about making the DA an approved school club."

Harry thought about it for a moment before he shook his head, "I know this is supposed to be a surprise, but I don't want to lie to Remus. We'll have to think of something else."

"It doesn't need to be a lie Mr. Potter. That was actually something I wished to speak to you about," said Professor McGonagall.

Harry looked over at his head of house, "What do you mean professor?"

McGonagall arched an eyebrow at him, "Do you mean to tell me you have not considered continuing your defense club Mr. Potter?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders non-noncommittally, "I don't know, I figured that now that everyone knows that Voldemort is back we'd get a decent Defense professor, so I didn't really think anyone would be interested."

McGonagall snorted in amusement, "Mr. Potter, I spoke with some of the members of your club at the end of the year. Every single one of them spoke highly of your teaching abilities. I'm certain that most, if not all, would leap at the chance of joining your study group again." She stopped and seemed to consider something for a moment before continuing, "I'm not supposed to tell you this Mr. Potter, but your year set three records for OWLs last year, would you like to guess what two of those records are?"

Harry shrugged, "I don't know Professor."

"The first is for most O's in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Every single student in your group managed either an Exceeding Expectations or an Outstanding on their Defense OWLs. The second record is for the amount of Dreadful and Troll grades, as most of the students not lucky enough to be a part of your group failed horribly."

Harry's jaw dropped at this information. He had known that most of his students had done fairly well, as many of them had thanked him after their exams and he had assumed that most of the rest had struggled, having never cast any of the spells they were being tested on, but he had no idea they had set any sort of record.

"What was the third record?" Tonks asked.

Harry looked at the professor curiously, "I'm sorry, but that will have to wait until the results are delivered." Tonks looked disappointed, but Harry nodded understandingly, he wouldn't want anyone sharing his personal information. "So you see Mr. Potter, it may very well be in everyone's best interest that the DA continue, especially with You-Know-Who having returned."

Harry thought about it for a moment before he nodded, "Well I suppose it couldn't hurt. If no one is interested we could always cancel."

"I don't think that will be a problem Mr. Potter," McGonagall said dryly. "We can begin planning at the beginning of each lesson," she looked at her watch, "but for now I believe we should return to our original agenda for the evening. Did you bring enough ingredients for the both of you?" Harry nodded and pulled them out of his bag, "Well then, perhaps we should get started."

OoOoO

Two hours later, Harry looked at the bubbling surface of his cauldron as it turned from white to green as a single drop of his blood fell into it. He quickly stirred it once counter-clockwise before taking the cauldron off the small fire and filling a vial. He almost quivered with excitement as he looked at Tonks, "Cheers," he said, lifting his vial towards her.

Tonks grinned, almost bouncing with her own excitement, "Cheers," she said, returning the gesture, before they both drained their vials.

Harry waited for a moment before looking at Tonks confused, "Isn't something supposed to happen?" he asked.

Tonks shrugged, "Maybe we did something wrong," she said disappointed, "Professor wasn't the vision was supposed to start as soon as-" she cut off as her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fell backwards, landing softly on a pile of pillows conjured as she fell by Professor McGonagall. Harry hardly had time to register his surprise, before he felt his eyes roll back in his head and he knew no more.

A/N So what do you guys think? Any suggestions for Animagus forms?


	12. Divided Attention

**Chapter 12**

Divided Attention

Harry looked down at the girl in front of him, her elbows on her knees as she tried to catch her breath, "So, regretting your decision yet?" he teased. Susan brushed her hair out of her face and gave him the evil eye in reply, too winded to speak. He opened his mouth to continue teasing her, when he felt an elbow hit him in the ribs, "Ow! Was that really necessary?" he asked, glaring at Tonks.

"Yes," the pink haired Auror replied smirking, "you wouldn't have liked it if I had teased you the first time I took you jogging."

Harry stared at her incredulously, massaging his bruised ribs, "Uh, Tonks, you _did_ tease me the first time you took me jogging. And the time after that. And pretty much every time since."

"And you didn't like it very much, did you?" Tonks asked matter-of-factly. Harry dropped his face into his hands and groaned, shaking his head at her deranged logic. Tonks turned to Susan who had taken the opportunity to straighten up, her face flushed as she breathed heavily, "So how do you feel?"

"Like- I'm going- to die- or at least throw up," Susan replied haltingly in between deep pants.

"Does that mean you're regretting your decision to join our workouts?" Tonks asked. Susan shook her head from side to side vigorously. Tonks laughed, "Ah, a hard worker, you really do belong in Hufflepuff, don't you," she said, draping an arm over the younger girls shoulders as they began to walk the last couple blocks back to Grimmauld Place to cool down. "I know you probably hate me right now, but trust me, you'll thank me later," she said, lowering her voice. Harry noticed Susan blush deeply and look away from him as he watched them curiously, unable to hear Tonks' last comment.

He hurried up the stairs as they reached #12 and opened the door, allowing the women to go first before following them in. As soon as they were inside Tonks promptly tripped over the troll-leg umbrella stand. Luckily Harry was prepared and managed to grab her before she fell over.

"Stupid troll-leg," Tonks muttered under her breath, "I don't know why we keep it around, we should throw the damn thing in the fire..."

Ignoring her mutterings, Harry led the way down to the basement where they had set up a training room, complete with magic resistant walls. He made his way over to the matted area where he squared off with Tonks and began the hand to hand portion of their training, giving Susan a break before Tonks would start teaching her the basics. He looked over at the metamorph who had changed back from her disguise to her normal self, "Feeling lucky today Potter?" she taunted as they slowly began circling one another.

Harry ignored her, refusing to rise to the bait. He had enough trouble avoiding getting beaten up when he wasn't distracted. No matter what he seemed to try, Tonks would always be one step ahead and he would end up flat on his back with a new bruise. Today he decided to change strategies and quickly closed the distance between them, throwing a few punches at her head. He had gotten over his fear of hitting her after the hundredth time she had knocked him down, but he would usually still try to grapple with her or let her take the initiative and try to use his quick reflexes to exploit an opening. Today he was hoping surprise would swing things in his favor. He smiled, emboldened as he pushed Tonks on the defensive, but he couldn't seem to connect as she ducked, dodged and blocked every single one of his blows. Still it was the longest he had managed to keep on the offensive, so he continued throwing punches at the metamorph, each punch just slightly closer to landing a solid blow. Tonks suddenly stumbled a little, causing her to lose her balance and he moved in for the takedown. He grinned and faked a punch with his right hand, before stepping forward and attacking with his left. He lost his grin as Tonks suddenly regained her balance, completely ignoring his fake and side-stepping his punch. The next thing he knew he was on his knees, his arm wrenched painfully behind his back. He quickly reached back with his other hand and gave a quick tap, signaling his submission before she let him up.

"Not bad Potter, I actually had to put in a little effort this time," she teased, "Again." Harry quickly moved on the offensive again, not waiting to be told twice. He felt himself grow angry as Tonks remained a step ahead of him, until she ducked under one of his punches, hitting him hard in the kidney before sweeping his legs from beneath him. He groaned as she reached down to help him up, "C'mon Potter, I thought having a pretty girl watching would give you some incentive to stop flailing around and actually hit me."

Harry glared daggers at her, but it quickly became apparent that no matter what he did, she was always one step ahead. The only times he even came close to knocking her down were mostly accidents. Time after time, he ended up on the ground and his new bruises quickly began adding up. Tonks reached down to help him up yet again, seemingly disappointed, "Alright Harry, I think that's enough for today."

Harry rolled his shoulders, trying to loosen them up as he looked at her, "One more time," he said before taking a couple steps back. Tonks shrugged and assumed her fighting stance, allowing him time to collect himself. Harry took a deep breath to calm himself, trying to forget all the taunts and embarrassment he had faced over the last half hour. He frowned as he felt something odd, before his eyes widened in realization.

He looked at Tonks, "I was wondering when you'd figure it out," she said, a cunning smile across her face as she moved towards him.

"I can't believe you, that's cheating," he said as she threw a punch at him. He blocked it awkwardly as he backpedaled, his attention divided as he tried to focus on both the fist coming at his face and the Legilimency probe she was using on him.

"This is a fight Harry, there is no such thing as cheating," Tonks explained as she advanced, splitting Harry's focus between her words, her mind probe and the punches she aimed at his head. She seemed to be taking it easy on him, only attacking just enough to keep him from concentrating throwing her out of his head.

Harry focused, nearly succeeding in pushing her out of his mind, when he was distracted by another flurry of punches aimed at his head, forcing him to drop his Occlumency for a moment as he blocked and dodged. When she backed off he shifted his focus back to her mind probe to find that it had returned to its original position, "How are you doing that?" he asked, as he once again began trying to push her out of his head.

"Think Potter, you knew Occlumency was a wandless magic, didn't it cross your mind that maybe Legilimency was too?" she asked, speeding up as she finished, with only Harry's quick reflexes saving him from a bloody nose.

He jumped back as he took a hard blow to the ribs, barely avoiding a kick that had been aimed at his knee, "I never really thought about it," he grumbled as Tonks allowed him a short breather, "you and Snape always used your wands, I just kind of assumed it was necessary." He focused on her mental attack, trying to force her out, but was thrown on his arse before he could manage it.

"Come on Potter," she said, all traces of disappointment gone from her voice, "you need to be able to hold your shields while you fight. Talented duelists _will_ use Legilimency on you, if you can't keep them out, you won't stand a chance. We're not stopping until you manage to push me out of your mind."

Harry stood up, wincing as the new bruise formed on his bum and tried to split his attention between mental and physical fights. He felt himself become drenched in sweat as he strained to form his mental barriers. Minutes passed and new bruises formed as he struggled. In the end it took him ten minutes, half a dozen new bruises and a bloody nose before he finally managed to throw her out of his mind. He bent over and rested his elbows on his knees as Tonks came and laid a hand on his shoulder, "Good job Harry."

He shook his head, disheartened at his poor showing, "If that had been a real fight I'd have been dead a dozen times over."

"It was your first time Harry, that's why we practice," she said, "The fact that you managed it at all was fairly impressive."

Harry looked up at her questioningly, "But I thought you said-"

"That we weren't stopping until you got your shields up? It was an incentive to try harder. Remus and I noticed you seem to learn better when you're being pushed, so thought I would try pushing ahead and force you to work past your limits."

"But why didn't you just tell me you were reading my mind?" he asked, somewhat annoyed that it had taken so long for him to figure out her trick.

"Call it another lesson. I can't tell you everything Harry. You need to be ready for the unexpected, because you can never be prepared for everything," she explained as she turned towards the corner that Susan had been watching from. Harry blinked in surprise as he found Remus standing across from her wearing a pair of padded gloves that he used to block the punches she was throwing at him. He normally didn't join their practices, instead focusing on something he called his 'secret project'.

"How's it coming along?" Tonks asked as she began to move towards the others.

Remus and Susan both lowered their fists and turned towards them, "Great, Susan here packs quite the punch," he said while Susan blushed at the praise, "How about you two?"

"Pretty well, Harry finally caught on to my little trick. Even managed to push me out," she replied.

Remus grinned widely, "Good job pup," he said, reaching over and patting him on the back, "just in time too. Another day and you would have cost me ten galleons."

Harry gaped at him, "Wait, you knew?" he asked.

"Of course I knew, it was my idea," he replied, laughing at the look on Harry's face, "all of this training you're going through isn't being done haphazardly. Tonks and I are putting a lot of thought into what you need to learn, what you'll pick up at Hogwarts and how we should teach you the rest." Harry listened, impressed with the amount of thought the two of them seemed to be putting into teaching him. "Speaking of which, I think it's time we saw where your dueling skills were at, so we can see what areas need improvement."

Harry looked at him confused, "But I can't use my wand, I'll be expelled."

"What do you think I've been working on pup? I've spent the last week adding wards around this room so that the Ministry can't detect what goes on in here," Remus explained. "Not even the Trace can pass through," he said gesturing at the walls with a proud expression on his face.

"So we can use magic?" Susan asked excitedly.

Remus nodded in response, "You sure can, at least in this room."

"How come Dumbledore didn't set this up earlier?" Harry asked angrily, "I asked him if I would be able to train over the summer and he said it wouldn't be possible."

"The headmaster is a busy man Harry," Remus replied in a soothing tone, "And the wards I put up to mask your casting are both complicated and time consuming. Now, why don't you forget about Dumbledore and let's see what you're made of. Unless of course you're scared?"

Harry grinned at the challenge as he and Remus moved to opposite ends of the room, forgetting his anger at the old man. The girls moved back to stand against the wall, both grinning in anticipation. Tonks moved forward until she was standing not quite between them, "Alright on my mark," she said raising her arm, "Three, two, one, GO!" she said, bringing her arm down to signify the start of the duel.

Harry wasted no time shouting "Stupefy!" at the other wizard. He saw Remus' eyes widen as the spell crashed into his shield, causing it to waver for a moment before he followed it up with another stunning spell. Harry maintained the offensive, casting mostly stunning, disarming and binding spells at the werewolf. Remus countered by shielding or side-stepping his curses and cutting any ropes that flew towards him, but remained on the defensive, refraining from casting any offensive spells. Mindful of his lesson from Tonks, Harry slowed his casting and focusing his attention on his own mind, but he was able to raise his Occlumency shields with little effort, unable to detect any foreign presence.

Remus looked at him questioningly for a moment as his attacks slowed, before a look of understanding crossed his face, "You thought I was reading you mind?" he asked.

Harry shrugged, "I figured it made sense, reinforcing the lesson I just learned is something you would have done back at Hogwarts."

Remus shook his head, "Not this time Harry, I just wanted to test your offensive abilities to see where you needed work. Now, I'm going to test your defensive skills, ready?"

He didn't wait for Harry to respond, unleashing a volley of spells towards him. Harry ducked the first one, dodged the next and shielded the third, calling out "Protego!" just in time to block it. Harry felt sweat begin dripping down his face again as he blocked spell after spell, casting shield after shield as Remus attacked, hardly able to even mount a counter attack. He lasted almost five minutes before his exhaustion caught up with him and a stunner burst through his shield before it could finish forming, causing everything to go black.

Harry looked up groggily as he regained consciousness to find Remus standing over him, leaning down to offer him a hand up. Reaching up he allowed the werewolf to haul him to his feet, "Nice work pup," Remus said as he helped him up.

As soon as he was on his feet, Tonks walked up and put an arm around Remus, "Come you three, let's get some lunch, afterward you guys can have an hour or two to rest up before we pick up again."

As they ate, Harry couldn't help but feel disappointed in his performance. He had pushed himself to his limit, yet he'd only been able to hold Remus off for a few minutes. If Remus could defeat him with such ease, how would he ever be able to defeat Voldemort?

He looked up in surprise when he felt an elbow in his side. "What's the matter, you haven't said anything since we left the training room?" Susan asked. It was just the two of them in the kitchen, Remus and Tonks apparently having left without his notice.

Harry sighed, not really wanting to talk about it, "It's nothing," he said, pushing the food around on his plate.

Susan arched an eyebrow at him, "Right. You're just moping around for the fun of it. You've barely even touched your food. I had about half the workout you did and I am starving," she proved her words by adding another helping to her plate. "So I'll ask again, what's the matter?"

He looked at her for a moment, taking a deep breath, "It's just that, I was trying my hardest and Remus beat me without breaking a sweat. How am I supposed to stand up to Voldemort if I can't even give him a challenge?"

Susan flinched as he said the Dark Lord's name, before giving him an incredulous look, "Are you joking? You're upset because you couldn't out-duel the only decent Defense professor we've ever had?"

When he thought about it like that, it did seem somewhat ridiculous. "Fake Moody wasn't bad," he said, trying to change the topic away from his recent duel.

"He was a Death Eater," she said flatly, looking at Harry as if he'd lost his mind.

"I still learned a lot from him," he said with a shrug.

Susan rolled her eyes, "Whatever, I'm pretty sure he was disqualified from being considered a decent teacher when he tried to murder you."

Harry snorted, "Well I think that disqualifies all of them," he said, rolling his eyes.

Susan gave him a questioning look, "What do you mean?"

Harry winced as he realized what he had just told her, "All of our Defense professor's have tried to kill me at some point," he said trying to keep his tone light.

"WHAT!?" she shrieked before donning a puzzled look, "Wait, even Remus?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah, but his was an accident. He was actually trying to protect me at the time," he said, defending the werewolf.

Harry watched as she tried to wrap her head around what he had just told her. "Okay, I think you're going to need to start from the beginning."

He sighed, normally he didn't like telling anyone about his adventures at school, but he figured if he didn't she would probably just keep asking, "Well, first year was Quirrell, he tried to kill me when I went to save the Philosopher's Stone from him and Voldemort."

"Quirrell was working with You-Know-Who?" she asked horrified.

Harry nodded, slightly annoyed at her use of the moniker, "Yeah, _Voldemort_," he said, emphasizing the name and causing her to flinch, "possessed him to try to get to the Stone," he paused, realizing that he'd just told her that the most feared Dark Lord in history had possessed one of her teachers for a year as Susan's face turned white with terror and figured it would be best to move on. "Second year was Lockheart and to be fair, now that I think about it he never really tried to _kill_ me, just turn me into a mindless vegetable." Susan looked at him with a combination of curiosity and horror, distracted from the thoughts that she had been taught by a man possessed by Voldemort for most of a year and had had no idea. "He tried to Oblivate Ron and I, but he used Ron's broken wand to do it and it backfired on him," he explained.

"He could actually cast a memory charm?" Susan asked, disdain for their old professor evident in her voice.

He laughed, glad that she had apparently gotten over any crush she may have had on the useless fraud, "Yeah, apparently it was the one spell he could cast."

"So, what about the others?"

"Well, Remus came to protect me during my confrontation with Sirius and the rat. Sadly it was a full moon and he had forgotten his Wolfsbane, so when we went to make our way to the castle Moony came out to play. Luckily Sirius was able to run him off and no one was hurt," Susan nodded, likely agreeing that it had been quite lucky. "Fourth year, you obviously know about. Crouch Jr. masqueraded as Moody and added a destination to the Cup, sending me to the graveyard," he stalled her as she opened her mouth to ask a question, "I know you're probably curious, but maybe some other time. It isn't something I like to talk about," he said, grateful as Susan closed her mouth and nodded. "And last and certainly least, Umbridge. She was the only one to try to kill me _before_ becoming my professor. You remember hearing about my trial for underage magic last year?" she nodded, "Well it was for casting a patronus to drive off a pair of dementors that attacked my cousin and I. Umbridge sent those dementors and then threatened to torture me with the Cruciatus at the end of the year."

"Merlin, Harry I'm so sorry," she said, shivering as she remembered her own short exposure to the torture curse. "School is hard enough, I can't imagine trying to make it through with someone trying to kill you every year."

Harry shrugged, feeling now might not be the best time to bring up all the _other_ times over the years when someone or something had tried to do him in. For one, he didn't think they had the time. "Well, I've seen the pattern now, so at the very least I'll be expecting it this time," he said laughing softly.

Susan watched him as if he were crazy, only to jump in surprise as Hedwig swooped past her to land on his shoulder, "Hey girl, what do you got for me?" he asked, before taking the letter off her leg. He quickly pushed part of his lunch onto Tonks' empty plate and allowed Hedwig to help herself, before he opened and quickly read his letter.

"Who's it from?" Susan asked from beside him, carefully looking away to let him know she wasn't trying to read over his shoulder in case it was private.

"Who's what from?" Tonks asked, striding into the kitchen, Remus right behind her, both looking slightly disheveled.

"Letter from Neville," he said, grinning as he took in their appearances and filing it away for later use. He was happy for both of them, but he was even happier that he finally had some ammunition to fire back with when they would tease him, "He invited me over for dinner sometime in the next couple days."

Remus looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, "Harry, I know he's your friend and I'm all for you going out and all, but I don't think you should be going anywhere by yourself."

"I'm not going by myself," he said, showing her the letter, "you're all welcome to come as well. He said to Floo call him to let him know how many to expect."

Remus took the letter, reading it carefully, "Well in that case you should give him a call. If he can deal with short notice, we'll be free tonight."


	13. Apology Not Accepted

**Chapter 13**

Apology Not Accepted

Harry stumbled out of the green flames later that night, dusting soot from himself, "Just a second Nev," he said, waving to his house mate as he moved to the side of the fireplace. A moment later the flames flared green again and he reached out, catching Tonks before she could fall as she tumbled out of the fireplace with her usual grace. "Hey Neville," he said, turning and greeting his friend properly as Tonks began cleaning herself off, "how's your summer been?"

"Hey Harry, it's been great, what about you?"

"Started off on a rough note, but the last few weeks have been pretty good," he looked at Tonks, who had finished dusting herself off, "I'm not sure whether you two have been properly introduced, so Neville this is Nymphadora Tonks," she gave him a nasty look that he ignored, "though I suggest you don't call her by her first name, Tonks this is Neville Longbottom," they greeted one another as Remus and then Susan came out of the Floo. "Neville, you remember Remus and Susan," he said, guiding his friend to the others.

Neville nodded, "Hello Susan, Professor Lupin," he said, shaking their hands.

Remus smiled as they shook hands, "I'm not a professor any longer Neville, you can call me Remus."

"That might take some getting used to Pro- Remus. Come on, I'll show you all to the dining room," he said, before turning and leading the way.

Harry moved to follow, but stopped and slapped his hands over his bum, as he glared at Tonks. "That's for using the name," she said grinning as she passed by, twirling her wand through her fingers before returning it to it's holster. Harry grimaced and rubbed his bottom as Remus and Susan walked by him laughing quietly, before he followed behind them.

'As if I haven't already had enough stinging hexes to last a lifetime,' he thought to himself. After they had finished their lunch, Remus had decided the most important thing for him to learn was silent casting and that the best way to teach him, was to silence him, bind everything but his wand arm to the wall and throw stinging hexes at him until he could cast a shield. While it had been an effective teaching method, it had NOT been a pleasant one.

Harry followed the others into a beautiful dining room, as Neville led the way in towards his grandmother, "Gran, I'd like to introduce Susan Bones, Remus Lupin and Nym-" he cut off at the glare from Tonks, "er, Tonks. And you of course remember Harry."

The old woman moved towards them, "Nice to meet you Ms. Bones, Ms. Tonks, Mr. Lupin," she said, shaking each of their hands in turn, "and nice to see you again Mr. Potter. I've wanted to speak to you for a while now."

Harry looked at the formidable old witch, suddenly nervous. Looking at the stern witch had reminded him that he had almost gotten her grandson killed just a month ago and he wondered if he had been invited for dinner as an excuse for her to berate him, "Hello Mrs. Longbottom, it's nice to see you again." He opened his mouth to apologize for leading Neville into danger, but she cut him off.

"Come now, dinner is ready and we don't want it to get cold," she said, gesturing towards one end of the large oak table, now covered in food. Harry felt his mouth water as the aroma's hit him, his light lunch and long day of training finally catching up with him as he took a seat. He ended up sitting between Neville and his grandmother, who had taken the seat at the end of the table. Susan sat across from him, with Tonks and Remus sitting on her side of the table.

Dinner went smoothly and Harry quickly forgot his nervousness amid the pleasant conversation and food. Mrs. Longbottom was a fantastic host, her stern demeanor forgotten as she asked questions and generally made her guests comfortable. Neville too seemed different than Harry remembered, more calm, more confident. He soon found out one of the reasons why when Neville pulled out his new wand, "Cherry and unicorn hair," he said, showing it off, "I'm just disappointed that I haven't had a chance to use it yet. Just holding it I can feel the difference." Harry smiled at his friend, glad that he finally had a proper wand and not a poorly suited hand-me-down.

"Well Nev, you'll have to swing by sometime soon. Moony just finished setting up some wards around our training room that block the Trace."

"Seriously?" he asked, the excitement clear in his voice as he started talking about the potential for learning new spells before the term began to prepare for the DA. "You are bringing the DA back, right?"

Harry nodded, "I'm planning on it. Tonks and I have been meeting with McGonagall to try to convince her and plan out the details," he replied, causing Neville to grin widely.

Eventually everyone finished eating and the dishes and remnants of food disappeared with a series of small pops. "That was fantastic Mrs. Longbottom," said Remus, leaning back in his chair with a satisfied look across his face.

"Thank you Mr. Lupin," she replied, before drawing herself up, her stern look returning, "but now I believe it is time to get down to business. Mr. Potter, I asked you to come here so that we might discuss events at the Ministry last month."

Harry sighed, simultaneously relieved and terrified that the moment of reckoning had come, "Mrs. Longbottom, I just wanted to apologize for leading-"

"Apologize?" she asked with a raised brow, "Mr. Potter, I did not invite you here to get angry with you, though I'll admit, I was quite livid when I first heard what happened. No, my grandson explained the situation, that you tried to talk him out of going with you and as he came out with no permanent damage I bear you no ill will. The opposite in fact. You have helped him gain confidence in himself, something he has lacked for far too long and you helped him become a strong young wizard," she glanced over at Neville, who had sat up straighter at his grandmother's praise. "More importantly you helped me realize that Neville is not his father, and that while I may have lost my son, I have a wonderful grandson who I am very proud of."

Harry looked over at his friend, who was beaming, "I'm really not sure how much I had to do with it," Harry said, slightly embarrassed.

"Nonsense, Neville believes you did, therefore so do I. However, while I wanted to thank you for helping my grandson, that is not the reason I asked you here tonight. The reason I asked you here tonight Mr. Potter, has to do with your friends at the Ministry that day. Would I be wrong to assume that they are a group dedicated to fighting You-Know-Who?" Harry shook his head, wondering what she was getting at, "Well, Mr. Potter, I asked you here in the hope that you could introduce me to these friends of yours. I have decided that I will not sit back any longer and let those bigots have their way. I may not be as young as I once was, but I can still give any of those Death Eaters a run for their money."

Harry opened his mouth in surprise, "You want to join the fight against Voldemort?" he asked, happy to see only a small frown at the name.

Mrs. Longbottom nodded at him, "Yes, Mr. Potter. Much like the Potter's, the Longbottom's have always fought against any Dark Lord wanting to rule through terror and fear. I cannot bear the thought of those animals roaming free, especially the bitch that took my son and daughter-in-law from me. I intend to do everything I can to ensure they end up Kissed or in the ground," she said, a glimmer of anger in her eye as she spoke of Lestrange.

Harry studied the woman in front of him for a moment before looking at Remus, who nodded subtly at him. "Well, technically Dumbledore is in charge, but I'm sure he'd be more than happy for you to join us. In fact, we have a meeting tomorrow night, I could get him to give you the location then. I would tell you now, but I can't."

"No worries Harry," Tonks said, looking through her pockets before pulling out a folded sheet of paper and handing it to the older woman, "I came prepared."

"Fidelius?" Mrs. Longbottom asked as she read the paper before handing it back. Tonks nodded as she handed it to Neville, who read it several times, committing it to memory before handing it back to Tonks, who promptly torched it.

"The meetings usually start around eight o'clock," said Tonks, letting her know what to expect, "You're free to come along too Neville. You won't be allowed into the meeting itself, but Ron, Ginny and the twins usually come and Susan has been staying with us, so she'll be there too," Neville nodded with a smile, glad to be included.

Remus looked at his watch before he stood up, "Well, it's getting late, we should be going as we have an early morning tomorrow. It was nice meeting you Augusta and nice seeing you again Neville." The rest of the group bid their goodbyes and Neville led them to the fireplace. Remus immediately walked in, calling out Grimmauld Place, before spinning away in a rush of green flames.

Harry turned to Neville, as Susan walked into the fireplace, "Well mate, it was nice to see you. Come by a little early tomorrow and we can hang out a little bit before the meeting."

"Sure Harry, but there's actually something else I wanted to talk to you about," Neville said, who seemed oddly nervous after having been so confident all night.

"What is it Nev?" he asked as Tonks turned and waited for him.

Neville looked down at his feet for a moment drawing up his courage, "Well, our birthdays are coming up in a couple weeks, I was thinking about having a party and seeing as your birthday is the day after mine, I thought maybe you'd want to have them together."

"Really?" he asked in shock. He hadn't even realized his birthday was coming up. Not that it was unusual, being stuck with the Dursleys' during the summer, he had never celebrated his birthday before.

Neville looked disappointed and backtracked, "It's alright if you don't want to, I'm sure you have other plans already."

"No, Nev, I'm sorry, you just caught me by surprise," he said, trying to reassure his friend "I sort of forgot that it was coming up.."

"Really?" Neville asked skeptically.

"I've never really celebrated my birthday before," Harry admitted, somewhat embarrassed. "I've always been stuck at the Dursleys' during the summer and well, I think I've mentioned how well I got along with them. I think celebrating together is a great idea."

"I'm sorry Harry, I didn't know. Are you sure?"

"Of course, how could I pass up the chance to have a good time with my best mates?" Harry replied, giving him a slap on the back to cheer him up.

Neville grinned at him, his cheerfulness from before returning in full force, " Alright, well if you tell Ron, Ginny, Susan and Hermione, I'll let the rest of our house-mates and Luna know. Feel free to invite anyone else as well, the more the merrier and all that."

"I think it would be best if you didn't tell anyone Harry would be attending," said Tonks, who had been standing quietly to the side, waiting for them to finish their conversation.

"Yeah, now that I think of it, that's probably a good idea," Harry said, nodding in agreement.

Neville looked confused for a moment before nodding, "Sure Harry, mum's the word. I'll see you tomorrow night," he said, waving goodbye.

"See you tomorrow Nev," Harry replied, before turning and walking into the fireplace with a big grin on his face. For the first time since he was a child, he was actually looking forward to his birthday.


	14. Eviction Notice

**Chapter 14**

Eviction Notice

Harry lay in the sitting room, reading his disguised Animagus book as Order members arrived for the meeting. He stretched, trying to find a comfortable position to lie in after a morning spent working on holding his Occlumency shields while Tonks tried to knock his head off, before Remus continued his silent casting lessons. Even after Remus had given him a once over, healing the worst of his welts and bruises, he still had quite a few tender areas.

"Hey mate, how's it going?"

Harry looked up from his book to find his best mate striding towards him with his younger sister. "Hey guys," he said grinning and tossing his book on the coffee table in front of him, "it's going great. How have you been? I haven't heard from you in a week."

Ron shrugged as he and Ginny sat down across from him, "Bored, mum still won't let us outside the wards, so we can't even play Quidditch. I really wish she'd let us swing by here more often," Ginny nodded her agreement.

Harry grimaced guiltily. Between Mrs. Weasleys' over protectiveness and the risk of bringing Voldemort down on them, he had avoided the Burrow all summer, "Your mum still doesn't want you coming here?"

Ron shook his head, "No, she says there's too much going on around headquarters to have kids running around. As if we weren't here all last summer," he snorted humorlessly.

"I think she wants to make sure we don't hear about anything that is going on. She's been treating us like toddlers ever since the Ministry," said Ginny, a scowl across her face, "she still won't let Fred and George join the Order, even though they're both of age."

"Is that why they aren't here?"

"No, they're here," Ron said, "They're probably looking for Dumbledore right now. They think they can convince him to let them in." He hesitated for a moment before continuing, "So, we heard something happened after the last meeting, but our parents won't tell us..." he trailed off, obviously hoping he would fill them in.

Harry watched them for a minute as they both leaned in eagerly, before he told them about the attack on the Bones' and everything else that had happened since their last letter.

"Wait, so you got into a fight with Death Eaters, went to Sirius' will reading against Dumbledore's orders and you didn't think to send us a letter?" Ron asked, sounding annoyed as Ginny scowled at him.

Harry shrugged, "Sorry, Hedwig has been tied up all week. I sent her to Austria with a letter for Hermione first, then I got a letter from Neville and his gran hoping I could get them in contact with the Order," he explained, "The earliest I could have sent you anything was this morning, but I figured you would be here tonight anyways, so I sent another letter to Hermione and decided to tell you in person."

The anger left Ron's face as he seemed to relax as Harry justified his reasoning, "Sorry mate, I thought maybe mum had told you to keep things from us."

Harry shook his head, "It's alright Ron, I would probably be mad too. You don't have to worry though, I'll let you know about anything that comes up," he said before looking over as the twins walked in and sat down with them, "So any luck?" he asked them.

The twin on the left shook his head, "Nope, we finally found old Dumbles, but mum cut us off as soon as we started talking to him."

"Luckily she was interrupted when Mrs. Longbottom showed up. I didn't realize she was part of the Order," said the other.

"She wasn't," replied Harry, "we talked to her last night. She wanted to join the fight, so we invited her and Neville to the meeting. Was he with her?" he asked curiously. They had invited Neville along, but Harry was uncertain as to whether or not his gran would be as over protective as Ron's mother.

The twins didn't have time to answer as Neville picked that exact moment to walk into the room, "Hey guys," he said waving at everyone, "yeah Gran thought it would be a good idea for me to come along, to get an idea of what was going on, but Dumbledore and Mrs. Weasley wouldn't let me in the meeting."

"I wouldn't worry about it Nev, you aren't missing much," said Harry as he moved over to make space for the others.

"They actually let you in ickle Harrikins?" asked one of the twins in surprise.

"How'd you manage that?" asked the other, suddenly very interested in what Harry had to say.

"Yeah, they did," cutting them off before they could get too worked up, "though your mother wasn't very happy about it. As for how I did it, I didn't give them much of a choice. Sirius gave me the house, so I told them that they'd have to let me in if they wanted to use it."

"So what was it like, actually getting to sit in on the meetings?" Ginny asked excited.

"Honestly? Boring. I've only been to one so far, but it doesn't seem to me like the Order actually does much. All they talked about was suspected Death Eaters doing barely suspicious things. They don't train, they don't go on missions and with the exception of the few that saved us at the Ministry, hardly any of them have ever even been in a fight. They haven't even gotten any new recruits since last year. For the most part they're nothing more than Dumbledore's eyes and ears."

"Well that is rather... disapointing," said one of the twins.

"Yeah, we thought it would be all exciting, you know, planing battles and raids," continued the other.

"Setting traps."

"Interrogating prisoners."

"Who knew that a secret organization could be so... boring?" the twins finished together.

Harry shrugged, unable to come up with an answer as he had been thinking the exact same thing. "That's what I thought too, but I asked Tonks and she said the last meeting was pretty standard, other than the battle directly after it."

"What battle would that be Harry?"

Harry sighed and gave them a quick overview of the attack on Madam Bones and the aftermath, during which Susan walked in and added her side of the story.

"Bloody hell Harry," said Ron as Susan came to the point where he banished a pot to intercept the killing curse, "you didn't tell us that part."

Harry blushed, embarrassed at the praise coming from the rest of the group as they all agreed. As far as he was concerned he had just acted and gotten lucky.

"Aww, is ickle Harrikins embarrassed by his heroics?" asked Fred, grinning at the opportunity to tease him.

"Come now Harry, we thought you would be used to it by now. Bravely rushing in to save the damsel in distress at the last possible moment." Harry could feel his cheeks growing redder as the twins poked fun at him.

"That's enough of that," Susan said, cutting them off before they could build too much steam, "you're embarrassing him."

Harry looked gratefully at Susan as she stopped the twins in their tracks, "Thanks Sue."

"No problem Harry," she said turning towards him and batting her eyelashes, "though now that I think about it, it was pretty brave. And I don't think I ever properly thanked you for it," Harry felt his eyes widened as she moved directly in front of him and slowly leaned in. He felt paralyzed, unable to move as everything seemed to go in slow motion. He noticed the looks of shock cross the faces of the rest of his friends as he watched unable to move as she closed in on him, before moving to the side at the last moment to kiss him on the cheek. "My knight in shining armor," she said grinning up at him as time seemed to fix itself and everything began moving at it's proper speed. He stared at her a moment, his face burning like the sun, before she burst out laughing, the others only a moment behind.

Harry looked at them all for a moment before realizing why they were laughing and shaking his head, "You've been spending way too much time around Tonks," he said, trying to sound irritated, but ruining it with a smile.

"Who has been spending too much time with me?" asked Tonks, striding into the room.

"That would be me," said Susan, raising her hand with a large smirk.

"Have you been teasing him?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips. Susan's smirk vanished as she nodded meekly, "What did I tell you about teasing Harry?"

"Sorry Tonks," Susan said while glancing down at her feet, causing Harry to look between them confused. It wasn't like Tonks to stop anyone from ribbing him, "I just had the perfect opportunity and stopping to get you from the other room would have ruined it," she finished, causing everyone to burst out laughing again. Harry rolled his eyes and sighed. That seemed much more like something Tonks would do.

"So did you come in here for a reason or do you have some sort of sixth sense that is drawn to my embarrassment?" he asked roughly, trying to change the subject.

"Why can't it be both?" she asked with another laugh, causing him to cross his arms and glare at her, "But yes, the meeting is about to start, I came to get you."

Harry nodded, glad for the excuse to leave the room, "Alright, I'll see you guys later." He made to turn away before quickly turning back, "Hey Nev, could you fill these guys in on the party, I didn't get a chance, you know with everyone having a good laugh at my expense."

Neville nodded with a smile, happy that Harry hadn't forgotten or changed his mind, "Sure Harry, no problem. You don't mind if we head to your training room after though, do you?" he asked, twirling his new wand through his fingers, obviously hoping to get in some practice with his new wand.

"Go ahead mate, Susan can show you where it is," replied Harry as the Weasley's all looked at him curiously, before walking towards the dining room as the twins began to grill Neville about the party, while Ron and Ginny asked about the training room. He followed Tonks in as they sat beside Remus, at the end opposite from Dumbledore. As soon as they were seated Dumbledore called the meeting to order.

After introducing Mrs. Longbottom to the rest of the Order, the meeting progressed much as the last one had. The sole bit of worthwhile information, other than the announcement that Rufus Scrimgeour was likely to become the new Minister of Magic, came from Snape of all people, announcing that after recent failures the Dark Lord was falling back to regroup and was planning on using his allies such as the dementors and the giants for future attacks while he attempted to recruit more Death Eaters. Harry tried to force himself to pay attention, but quickly decided practicing his Occlumency was more worthwhile than anything being said. He was paying so little attention to the meeting that it almost finished without him realizing it.

"So, is there anything else?" Dumbledore asked, looking around the table. When no one spoke up he continued, "Well then, if no one else has any new information-"

"Hang on a second," interrupted Harry, "shouldn't we be making plans to actually do something?"

Snape sneered at him from his place behind Dumbledore, "What do you think we've been doing Potter?"

"From what I heard, mostly gossiping like a bunch of housewives," he replied snarkily, causing a number of Order members to glare at him.

"Typical Potter, walk in late like you own the place, disrespect everyone working for your benefit and then try to force everyone to agree to your ridiculous ideas. I said from the beginning headmaster, allowing the brat into these meetings wastes all of our time," said Snape, a small rumble of agreement coming from around the table.

Harry took a moment to calm himself before responding, "Well Snape, first of all I _do_ own the place, so I'm allowed to walk in however I'd like," he said, causing Remus to grin. "Second, last time I checked this group was dedicated to defeating Voldemort, which is as much for the benefit of you and everyone else here as it is for me. And what ridiculous idea is that? I'm suggesting we be proactive, maybe take the fight to Voldemort for a change."

His comment had exactly the effect that he thought it would as most of the Order flinched before everyone began talking at once, shouting to be heard over one another and many claiming he was too young to understand how to fight a war. Dumbledore however just sat quietly, his face an expressionless mask as he watched the arguments escalate. Harry remained silent, Tonks and Remus doing the same as they waited for order to be restored. Eventually Moody, tired of the useless arguing and fired of a noise making spell that sounded like a gunshot, "Enough!" he shouted, causing everyone present to stop what they were doing and retake their seats. "Now lad," he said turning towards Harry, "what exactly are you planning?" he asked.

Harry looked at the grizzled Auror for a moment. He had both eyes, normal and magical focused on him, and unlike many of the others around the table, whispering to each other, actually seemed interested in what Harry had to say. Harry took a deep breath as he prepared himself. This was his chance to change things, to convince the Order to get their collective arses in gear. "Well I have a few different ideas. We need to start chipping away at the Death Eaters."

Elphias Doge quickly stood up, interrupting him, "Wouldn't that make us no better than them?" he asked, sounding outraged. He gestured around the table, "None of us here are murderers boy." All around the table murmuring started quickly agreeing with him.

"I'm not suggesting we kill them," Harry said, cutting them off before they could drown him out, "I'm suggesting we capture known Death Eaters now, before they attack innocent people and interrogate them. We have very little knowledge of their plans and it sounds like other than the obvious ones like Malfoy and the Lestranges, most of the Death Eaters we 'know' about are just your idle speculation. We could get a better idea of his forces, all the while taking some of his men off the streets." Harry looked around the table as he finished, trying to judge whether or not they agreed with him. He was surprised to find that only a small number seemed to be nodding their heads in agreement, until the headmaster spoke.

"Harry, we cannot just abduct people off the street based off our suspicions. Even if we were willing to do so, we don't have the manpower necessary to keep them."

"Then why haven't we been recruiting?" Harry asked, looking around the table for support, "I've looked around the last couple of weeks and the only new Order members I've seen are myself and Mrs. Longbottom."

"So now we're supposed to take in random passersby on the streets?" asked Snape, his usual sneer plastered across his face.

"Don't be ridiculous," Harry snapped, causing the greasy Potions teacher to snarl in anger, "I'm suggesting we bring in people we trust. I'm sure some of you must know others that want to fight back," he said, still looking around the table.

"And put our families and friends at risk?" asked Dedalus Diggle, "I joined up specifically so that they wouldn't have too." All around the table others agreed.

Harry shook his head, he understood not wanting to trust strangers and wanting to keep the people you cared about safe, but surely there were other trustworthy people willing to fight. Whether or not that was true didn't seem to matter, as with a few exceptions, no one seemed willing to even consider the idea. "So you're telling me none of you know anyone willing to fight against Voldemort?" he asked, his anger rising as most of the people around the table flinched again, "Merlin, what's the matter with all of you? How are you supposed to fight against him if you can't even hear his bloody name without cringing like frightened children?"

He opened his mouth to continue his rant when Dumbledore cut him off, "That is enough Harry. I believe that concludes the meeting for tonight, I will see you all next week," he said, as most of the Order quickly stood and moved towards the doors, "Harry if you would remain behind."

Harry pushed his anger down as the rest of the Order left the room, the sole exceptions being Remus and Tonks, who remained seated beside him, "Remus, Nymphadora, if I could speak with Harry in private," Dumbledore said, motioning towards the door.

Tonks' hair flared red at the use of her given name and Remus looked like he was about to argue, but Harry spoke first, "It's alright, I'll talk to you guys after," he said, nodding towards the door. Both looked at him for a moment before Remus gave him a small nod and led Tonks towards the door, closing it behind them on their way out. "What do you want Professor?"

The headmaster seemed to fight with himself as he looked at Harry over peaked fingers and sighed softly, "I believe it would be best if you no longer attended these meetings Harry."

Harry felt the rage he had been suppressing nearly overflow, "So that's it? Two meetings and you break our agreement?"

"You brought this upon yourself Harry," the headmaster replied flatly, further infuriating him, "Running into the fight after the first meeting and starting an argument at the second. I thought you were mature enough to be included, but your actions have proven me wrong."

Harry opened his mouth to yell at the old man seated across from him, but stopped himself before any words could come out. 'That's what he expects. Why would he ban me from meetings, he had to know I wouldn't just go quietly.' He stared at the headmaster for a moment before he figured it out, 'Unless he isn't planning on really kicking me out and just wants to get me to agree to whatever conditions he has to continue attending. Well bollocks to that,' he thought to himself, taking a deep breath to calm himself as he quickly decided on a course of action. "If that's what you think is best headmaster," he said, resisting the urge to smile as a look of surprise flashed across the old man's face.

To Dumbledore's credit, he recovered quickly, "I'm glad you're taking this so well Harry. Perhaps next summer you will be ready to join us in our efforts," he said as he stood and turned to leave.

"I don't think that will be necessary," Harry replied, smiling at the look of shock on the headmaster's face as he turned back towards him, "after what I've seen, I have no intention of joining your Order. And, with that in mind, next week will be the final Order meeting conducted at Grimmauld Place. After it is done, you will transfer the secret to Remus."

Panic was etched clearly on Dumbledore's face for a moment, before he changed from unquestionable leader to benevolent grandfather figure, "Harry, my boy, surely you don't mean-"

"I do Professor. I have no intention of joining a group that seems to refuse to take any sort of action."

"Harry, surely you can see we are opposing Voldemort the best we can?" Dumbledore said, the desperation clear in his voice.

"The best you can? What exactly have you done Professor? Other than the battles at the Department of Mysteries and Bones Manor, has the Order actually done anything?" he asked, curious as to whether Dumbledore's vaunted Order of the Phoenix had actually accomplished anything over the past year.

"Of course," he replied, sounding offended, "along with keeping an eye on suspected Death Eaters, we spent many resources on protecting both you and the prophecy."

Harry snorted, completely unimpressed, "So, aside from gossiping like a bunch of housewives, you have protected a crystal ball that should have been destroyed and made sure I stayed locked up like a prisoner."

"You were never a-"

"Never a prisoner?" he interrupted, "Really? Is there any other reason for there to be a guard outside my house? I mean I was protected by your supposedly impenetrable blood wards, what other reason would they have to be there?" he asked, he voice slowly raising as he spoke.

"What of Sirius, Harry?" asked Dumbledore, changing the subject to avoid the question he had no answer for, "His last request was that you allow the Order to continue to use your house, his house. Would you ignore his last request?"

The rage Harry had been suppressing burst, "How dare you! How dare you try to use Sirius to manipulate me!" he yelled, knocking his chair over as he stood and moved around the table to confront the headmaster directly. "In case you forgot, I was at his will reading too, and his last wish was that I be happy and free from your manipulations. Now get out!" he said, forcing the headmaster to stumble to his feet as he pushed him from his chair.

"Harry surely-"

"GET OUT!" Harry screamed, forcing the headmaster towards the door.

Realizing he was fighting a losing battle, Dumbledore allowed himself to be herded out of the room towards the fireplace. Dumbledore turned in front of the fireplace, "I will return tomorrow, when you've had a chance to calm down Harry"

"If I see you before the next meeting you'll regret it old man," Harry growled, his wand in his hand, completely unaware of his housemates behind him staring in shock. "Now, get the bloody hell out of my house."

With no other alternative, the headmaster turned and disappeared into the fireplace in a swirl of green flames. Satisfied that he was gone, Harry turned towards the stairs, only to be stopped by Remus, "Harry, what the hell just happened?" he asked, bewildered.

"I just served the Order their eviction notice," he replied, before climbing the stairs, slamming the door to his room behind him.


	15. The Marauder's Den

**Chapter 15**

The Marauder's Den

"Expelliarmus!"

Harry's shield buckled and his wand flew from his hand as he was thrown backwards. Rolling as he hit the ground, he regained his feet, dodging desperately as two spells as flew just past his ear. He saw his wand laying on the floor only a few feet away and lunged for it, only to slam into the ground as ropes wrapped themselves around his legs. Struggling to free himself, he looked up just in time to see another burst of light hit him in the forehead, causing his arms to snap to his side. Unable to move, he stopped struggling and waited silently while his attacker slowly made her way towards him breathing heavily.

She pointed her wand at him for a moment, before smiling deviously and raising it towards the ceiling, "Hmm.. what was that counter-curse again?" she asked, putting her hand to her chin as if she were trying to think. "You don't happen to know it do you Tonks?"

Tonks moved towards them from the spot along the wall where she had been watching their duels, "I don't think so," she said, adopting a similar pose, "what about you Harry?" she asked looking down at him. Unable to move anything but his eyes, Harry glared at them both. "What's the matter, cat got your tongue?" she teased as he looked up at her, unable to speak. "Oh don't look at me like that, I was only teasing you," she said with a roll of her eyes, before giving her wand a quick wave, canceling the bond-bind and the silencing spell she had placed on him before the duel.

Harry quickly jumped to his feet as she freed him, "Best of seven," he growled as Susan returned his wand.

"No one likes a sore loser Harry," Tonks said, quickly stepping between them before they could begin another round. "The Order meeting is going to start in half an hour and you need to shower," she said, waving her hand in front of her nose, "you'll just have to try again tomorrow."

He grimaced, "Ugh, do I have to? Come on Tonks, you know I'm no longer welcome in there," he said wiping the sweat from his nose. He couldn't bear the thought of watching all the useless old codgers walking past him, knowing he had been kicked out.

Tonks shook her head, "Harry, you know Dumbledore won't leave until you talk to him. Besides, the rest of your friends should get here around the same time and I'm sure they are looking forward to seeing you," she said taking his arm and guiding him towards the door.

"I'm tired anyways," said the redhead, taking his other arm in hers as she used her other hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead, "there's only so many times I can kick your arse before I keel over from exhaustion," she teased, causing him to snort humorlessly.

"I guess I should make sure Dumbledore doesn't try to weasel his way out of giving up his headquarters," he sighed, allowing the girls to drag him from the training room. Making his way upstairs with Susan, they left Tonks in the sitting room before quickly grabbing some clothes from his room and heading towards the bathroom.

Just as he made it to the door, Susan shot past him, "Ladies first," she said, shutting it in his face. Scowling at the door, he turned on his heel and returned to his room to relax and plan for the upcoming confrontation with Dumbledore.

OoOoO

"I'm sorry, but I can't allow you to do this," said Dumbledore, causing Harry to bristle with anger.

"Allow me? I don't think you understand Dumbledore, but you don't have to allow anything. It's my house, you have no say in what I do with it," replied Harry. He had no intention of allowing the old man's useless groupies to continue using his home as their clubhouse. "You should be thanking me. Without any meetings you won't have to put up with anymore of their useless rambling. "

The headmaster scowled at him, "Harry, insulting the people who have are putting themselves at risk to fight Voldemort is unnecessary. The Order must remain at Grimmauld Place. The phrasing of the Fidelius charm on this house is '_The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found__at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London._' If this house is no longer home to the Order, the Fidelius around it will fall," said Dumbledore, desperately trying to convince him that it was necessary for headquarters to remain in the dark manor.

"Perfect," he replied, completely unfazed by the revelation, "we'll cast a new one. I think Remus would make a fantastic Secret-Keeper, don't you?" Dumbledore watched him with a combination of fear and shock at his uncaring attitude.

"That isn't how the Fidelius charm works, Harry. Remus can not be the Secret-Keeper for Grimmauld Place for the same reason your mother and father could not be their own Secret-Keeper."

Harry crossed his arms in front of his chest, "And why is that?" he demanded.

"Every minute the Secret-Keeper spends inside the Fidelius charm weakens it."

"Then how can you be here?" Harry asked, looking at the headmaster with distrust.

"There is a reason I only spend a few hours a week inside Grimmauld Place and it is not only due to other commitments. The longer I remain within the wards at Grimmauld Place, the weaker the Fidelius becomes. It would likely only last two or three days if I were to remain inside," Dumbledore explained patiently. Harry looked at him suspiciously, wondering what the old man's new ploy would be now that he had made it clear he had no intention of allowing his little sewing circle to continue using his home as their meeting spot. "However, if you insist on barring the Order from you house, I offer my services as Secret-Keeper."

'And there it is,' he thought to himself. "Thanks for the offer," he sneered, doing his best Snape impression, "but I would rather my Secret-Keeper be someone I could trust."

A hurt look crossed Dumbledore's face, "Harry, you know you can trust me."

"Can I?" he asked, "You've hidden things from me from me, you've ignored me when I needed your help and I've lost track of the amount of times I've almost died when I was supposedly under your protection in the so-called '_safest place in Britain_,'" he said with as much sarcasm as could manage.

"I am truly sorry Harry, but I did explain my reasoning to you. I wanted you to have a normal, happy childhood."

"Another one of your failures," Harry replied angrily, "I've told you before about my so-called 'happy childhood', you know, the one where I was worked like a slave and beaten for fun. Is that the childhood you're talking about?"

"I only wanted you to be safe Harry. It was for-"

He cut off as Harry interrupted him, "Don't you dare say the 'Greater Good.' I'm sick and tired of hearing how all of your failures are just mistakes that you were supposedly doing for the bloody 'Greater Good.' Who's 'Greater Good' is this for Dumbledore? It certainly wasn't mine."

The aged wizard looked at him for a moment before speaking, "I truly am sorry Harry. But as you know, your safety is of utmost importance, so it would be best if I were to remain your Secret-Keeper."

It took all the willpower Harry had not to curse the old fool. He took a few deep breaths and focused on his Occlumency exercises to calm himself before he replied, "Listen to me, you dense old goat, I absolutely refuse to use someone willing to trust a Death Eater as my Secret-Keeper. If you don't get that through your thick skull, I will bring down the Fidelius right now and find someone else to recast it."

The old headmaster looked at him in shock, "I would never give the Secret to any of Voldemort's followers," he said, sounding outraged, his normal calm dissipating.

"Still trusting Snivellus, aren't you?" asked Harry with a sneer.

Dumbledore sighed dramatically, "Severus is your Professor, Harry and deserves your respect. I have told you many times, Professor Snape has my complete confidence and he should have yours as well."

"Well he doesn't," responded Harry, "and seeing as you feel it unnecessary to tell me _why_ the greasy git has your complete confidence, I don't see him gaining it any time soon."

The headmaster turned looking for aid, "Remus, surely you can convince Mr. Potter that I would be the best choice for his Secret-Keeper," he pleaded of the werewolf.

Harry turned towards his new guardian, holding his breath. They had argued over kicking the Order out of Grimmauld Place and while Harry was technically the owner, as his guardian and Regent of House Black, Remus had the authority to overrule him. "I'm sorry Albus, but the house belongs to Harry and it is therefore his decision. I won't force him," he said, causing Harry to exhale in relief and the headmaster to drop his head in defeat.

"Alright Harry, if that is your wish, I will make the preparations and return tomorrow to recast the charm. I will meet you and your chosen Secret-Keeper here at 8:00," he said, turning and walking towards the fireplace. "I only hope that your choice is more trustworthy than that of your parents," he finished, causing Harry to snarl and resist the urge to hex him as he Flooed to his office.

"Are you sure that was a good idea Harry?" asked Remus as Dumbledore vanished in a flash of green, "I know you don't like Dumbledore right now, but I can't think of anyone better to protect our home."

Harry smiled at the older man's use of the words 'our home' and nodded, "If it wasn't for Snape, than maybe I would, but he trusts the greasy git way too much. He wouldn't hesitate to give him the secret and then we would have to worry about a Death Eater attacking us in our sleep."

"I don't like Severus either, but he wouldn't betray us. Dumbledore may be trusting, but he is not easily fooled."

"And Voldemort is?" Harry demanded, "He has one of them fooled and it would be stupid to assume it isn't Dumbledore."

Remus sighed, unwilling to rehash old arguments, "Alright Harry, it is your decision after all, but if I can't be Secret-Keeper, who will you use?"

OoOoO

"Incarcerous, Incarcerous!"

Harry grinned as he silently burnt both set of ropes that flew towards him, before quickly returning his own along with a stunner and a body-bind. Susan quickly cast a diffindo, severing the bindings that had been speeding towards her, before raising a shield as the other two spells raced towards her. Her shield held against the first, but the second broke through, causing her arms and legs to snap together, before she fell heavily to the ground.

He raised his arms in victory, allowing himself to do a small victory dance before moving to the paralyzed redhead. He carefully rolled her over so that she could see him, pointing his wand at her, before stopping and scratching his chin thoughtfully with a grin. The grin swiftly disappeared as he slapped his hands over his bum in pain.

He glared at Tonks as she walked up beside him, releasing Susan from the body-bind. He waited patiently, tapping his foot as she helped her up. "What do you think Sue, should we make it a best of seven? Harry was insisting on it yesterday," Tonks said, glancing at him with a sly grin.

Susan smiled at him for a moment as well as she considered it, before shaking her head, "Nah, he won fair and square. I'll just have to start a new winning streak tomorrow," she said, her stomach rumbling as she turned towards the door, "Besides, I'm hungry, let's go get something to eat."

"Me too," replied Tonks as they began walking towards the door, "though I have that nagging feeling that we're forgetting something." Harry quickly moved between them and the door, blocking their path as he pointed to his throat. "Is something the matter Harry?" asked Tonks, laughing as he failed to respond. "What was that? You're going to have to speak up," she said, causing Susan to burst out laughing and Harry to glare at her as they both walked around him.

He followed them upstairs towards the kitchen, where Remus had just finished making dinner. "Hey guys, so how did it go?" he asked, before he noticed Harry trying to gain his attention, pointing to his throat with a pleading look. He rolled his eyes as he pulled his wand and canceled the advanced silencing charm Tonks had placed on his young ward before they had started their duels.

"Merlin, thanks Moony," he said, grateful to finally have his voice back. The charm that Tonks had used couldn't be canceled with a simple Finite and she refused to teach him the counter. "I was worried that they were going to leave me like that."

"I was just trying to get you to practice your silencing charms," Tonks replied, trying and failing to look innocent as a grin crossed her face.

Harry snorted, "If there's anyone that needs to practice their silencing charms, it's you two," he muttered, causing Remus and Tonks to both blush furiously and Susan to break out laughing once again.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about," Tonks said, ducking her head to hide her rosy cheeks as she began to eat.

Harry grinned as he noticed her blush. He hadn't intended to say that out loud, but if it gave him the chance to get a little bit of revenge on the metamorph... "Are you sure Tonks? Well I suppose it must be one of the neighbors yelling for their 'big bad wolf' to come in and-" he cut off as he blocked a spell from Tonks, but was unprepared for the one Remus shot at him. He tried to cancel it, but it seemed to be the same silencing spell that Tonks used on him during his duels with Susan. He glared back and forth between the metamorph and the werewolf while Susan sat, laughing so hard she was almost falling from her chair. Pointing at his throat, he tried to convince the old Marauder to cancel the charm.

Remus shook his head, "I'm your guardian now, I can't just let you go about disrespecting your elders." He laughed as Harry attempted giving him a sad look, "Sorry pup, it's not going to work. Padfoot had the puppy dog eyes mastered, I built up an immunity." Harry ate silently for a few minutes as the others teased him, before Tonks took pity on him and canceled the charm.

Eventually they moved out into the sitting room to wait for their guests. Madam Bones was the first to arrive, causing Susan to rush over to greet her, "Auntie!" she cried, throwing her arms around her. While he hadn't noticed until after he had chased the old bastard out of his house, it had been a nice surprise to find that he had done something right for a change and had apparently accepted Madam Bones into the Order. Of course his surprise over the headmaster's unusual competence had been surpassed by his even greater surprise when the usually stern woman had embraced him tightly, thanking him over and over for saving her niece.

Dumbledore was next to join them, exiting the basement where the ward anchor was hidden. He looked around the room, stopping as he reached Madam Bones, "Harry, while Madam Bones is a terrific witch, are you certain you wouldn't like to choose someone that you are a little more familiar with?" he asked, once again clearly hinting that he himself would be the proper choice.

"I believe I have made the correct choice," he replied coolly, as Madam Bones gave the headmaster a hard stare that he pretended not to notice.

Dumbledore sighed in defeat, "Alright then, if everyone is here-"

"Everyone isn't here, we're still waiting on one more," interrupted Harry.

Dumbledore looked around confused, "Who are we missing?"

"The Secret-Keeper Albus," said Amelia, sniffing at him in disdain, "you will be happy to know that I am only here to observe. I plan on casting the Fidelius on my own home sometime in the next few days."

"If you're not the Secret-Keeper, then who-" asked Dumbledore, cutting himself off as the fireplace flared green once more.

"Ah, Professor, I'm glad you could make it," Harry said, striding towards the fireplace to greet the new arrival.

"Minerva?" asked Dumbledore, stunned.

"Yes Albus," she replied, using her wand to clean herself off, "I must admit I was surprised as well when Mr Potter contacted me this morning with his request, though I am honored that he thinks so highly of me," she said, flashing him a rare smile.

"I must admit, I hadn't thought of you using Minerva as your Secret-Keeper," said the headmaster sounding pleased with himself, the twinkle suddenly returning to his eye. "Do you mind if I ask why you chose her?"

"She isn't a target like Madam Bones, she isn't an auror, rushing off into danger like Tonks or Mad-Eye," he said, ticking off his points on his fingers, "she isn't the first person that others will expect like Remus, she can meet with other Order members or my friends to give them the secret without raising suspicions. And unlike certain other prospects, I actually trust her," he finished, glaring at the headmaster, giving him no doubt as to who didn't fit his last criteria.

Dumbledore scowled, but otherwise ignored Harry's thinly veiled insult, "Well Harry, I'm impressed, it seems like you've put a lot of thought into this. I'm sure we will be able to find a new meeting place soon for the Order, then we can let everyone know-"

"Oh there was one more reason," Harry said, smiling at the headmaster, "She agreed not to tell anyone without my permission."

"But Harry-" the headmaster started.

"No but's Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall and I have already made the decision. I agreed to let her tell you the secret, under the condition that you will not attempt to talk, trick or force her into telling others."

Dumbledore opened his mouth to argue, but cut off as he took in the determined look from Harry, "If that is what it takes, I suppose I do not have a choice in the matter," he sighed, seeming to deflate before turning towards the door to lead the way outside. "Almost everything is ready, the last thing we require is to come up with the wording of the secret and for Minerva to focus on it while I recast the ward," he said as they assembled outside the front door, surrounding themselves and the house in Notice-Me-Not's.

"Why not just say Harry Potter lives at #12 Grimmauld Place?" asked Tonks.

"Because Nymphadora," Dumbledore explained as her hair turned a violent shade of red, "in a little over a month Mr Potter will _not_ be living at Grimmauld Place, he will be living at the castle. For a stable Fidelius we must have a secret that will be true no matter where he is currently residing."

Harry racked his brain trying to think of a way to permanently hide his home, looking around as everyone else seemed to be doing the same thing. "I got it," said Tonks suddenly, moving forward to whisper in McGonagall's ear.

The Transfiguration professor listened for a moment before smiling and nodding, "I believe that will do nicely," she replied.

"Alright then," said Dumbledore, facing the house with his wand drawn, "now because we are just renewing the Fidelius Charm on this house, all the preparations have already been completed. The only thing that remains to do before casting the new charm is to bring down the old one. Harry, if you would," he finished, gesturing for Harry to bring down the current ward.

Harry stepped forward, "The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix is no longer at #12 Grimmauld Place," he said, watching the house in front of him. Surprisingly, nothing seemed to change. There were no bangs, no flashes of light and no shockwaves of magic. "Did I do it right?" he asked.

"Yes Harry, the current Secret has been released," the headmaster said sadly, before turning to his deputy headmistress, "Are you ready Minerva? Remember, you must concentrate on the exact wording of the Secret to be successful." McGonagall nodded back at him and Dumbledore began chanting slowly. The incantation lasted several minutes while Harry waited impatiently, wondering how long it would be before he finally felt something. He looked around in confusion, wondering what they were doing standing on a random sidewalk in London.

"What's going on, why are we standing here?" asked Tonks, looking around interestedly. The rest of the group, with the exception of McGonagall seemed to be wondering the same thing as the took in their surroundings, looking around confused.

"It will all become clear in a moment Ms Tonks," she said as she quickly wrote something on a scrap of parchment before handing it to the metamorph. Tonks looked at the parchment in confusion for a moment, before a look of understanding passed over her face and she passed it to Remus.

Harry waited patiently for the parchment to make it's way through the group before it finally made it's way to him. He looked at it for a moment before smiling as he reread the short message, 'The Marauder's Den can be found at #12 Grimmauld Place.'

A/N - Responses to reviews

AlsoKnownAsMatt - The inactivity of the Order annoyed me as well, and I think it would have annoyed Harry even more as he has been fighting this war pretty much by himself since he was 11. The way I look at it, at this point he's realized how useless most of the Order is and decided he has no use for them. He doesn't have any plans to make his own army yet(and likely will never consciously decide to), but already has the basis of it, with Remus, Tonks, Hermione, Ron, Neville and the twins all firmly on his side.

Cateagle - Dumbledore fears being proactive for one reason. He can't win. Other than Harry, no one can, so as far as he is concerned getting into fights isn't worth it, especially seeing as he still thinks the Death Eaters can be redeemed. As far as Augusta is concerned, she won't do anything, at least for a while. While she has tremendous respect for him, she has even more for Dumbledore. She WILL however be one of the biggest supporters of Harry within the Order and try to convince Dumbledore to be more proactive.

The Defenestration of Fools - Remus doesn't need to be blackmailed, his loyalty is with Harry, though he does still respect Dumbledore.

AlsoKnownAsMatt (again seeing as I forgot to add AN before I posted) - Susan was only able to beat Harry because Tonks silenced him before the beginning of their duels to help him learn silent casting. The fact that he is able to match her after little more than a week of silent casting should show just how much more advanced he is.


	16. Happy Birthday Harry

**Chapter 16**

Happy Birthday Harry

Harry woke up on his birthday with a smile on his face. He kept his eyes closed as he lay in bed, warm and comfortable, reminiscing about the previous night. For the first time in his life, his birthday had been a smashing success and technically it had only just begun. All of his friends had been at Neville's and they had spent the night having fun, making their way through the case of firewhiskey the twins had brought along with them. His bi-polar luck was even on his side today, saving him from his usual morning after hangover.

He was distracted from his memories as he noticed the weight on top of him shift, "Tonks, you can't just come cuddle with me whenever Moony is off howling at his namesake," he said with a groan. As nice as it was to cuddle up to such a beautiful witch, he couldn't help but feel guilty for sleeping with his guardians girlfriend, even if it really was nothing but sleep.

"Harry?!" came the startled voice from beside him, accompanied by a loud thump as it's owner pushed herself away from him, causing her to land hard on the floor. Harry rolled onto his side and opened his mouth, only to have the words die on his lips as he saw the naked girl picking herself up off the floor.

'What the bloody hell happened last night?'

OoOoO

_~12 hours earlier_

Harry had barely stumbled out of the Longbottom's Floo before he was struck by a missile masquerading as a teenage girl. Looking down he was surprised by the lack of bushy brown hair, instead finding a pair of long blonde pigtails. He opened his mouth, wondering why the blonde Hufflepuff seemed to be clinging to him for dear life, when she released him from her death grip, and took his face in her hands.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," she said, pulling his head down and planting a kiss on each of his cheeks in between each repetition, before placing a long kiss directly on his lips after the last. Harry didn't move as she released him, instead standing in stunned silence as the blonde moved away and pulled her red-headed best friend into another hug.

"I think you broke him," said Susan with a laugh as she looked at him after being released.

Hannah looked at him for a moment, taking in his stunned expression, "Oh, well if that isn't a boost for my ego, I don't know what is. Harry Potter, vanquisher of basilisks, dragons and Dark Lords, stopped in his tracks by little old me."

Harry stared back and forth at the two of them until another whooshing sound broke him from his stupor. He turned towards it just in time for a pink haired Auror to fly through the air, hitting him in the chest, knocking him down and landing on top of him. "You know Harry, I thought you'd of had enough of me knocking you on your arse by now," Tonks said as she pushed herself off of him, before looking back and forth between him and the laughing girls, "Aww, I missed it again, didn't I?"

Harry picked himself off the floor, grumbling about clumsy Aurors as the girls informed Tonks about their little joke, causing her to almost fall over laughing. He glared at them, which just caused them to laugh harder, "Aww, isn't he cute when he's all broody," Tonks said, reaching over and pinching his cheek.

Harry pulled himself away from her while the girls had another laugh at his expense and quickly made his retreat towards the rest of the party. 'Maybe I can get them to spend their night teasing someone else for a change,' he thought to himself, 'Ron's a good mate, I'm sure he'd be willing to do me a favor for my birthday.'

OoOoO

Susan watched Tonks follow Harry towards the rest of the party before turning towards her best friend and swatting her on the shoulder, "What in Merlin's name was that?" she demanded, slightly annoyed at the blonde standing in front of her.

"What was what?" Hannah asked trying and failing to sound innocent, her large grin betraying her.

"What do you think?" she asked as Hannah continued to play dumb, "The kiss! What else would I mean? Even I didn't do that."

"Really?" asked the blonde, looking at her in complete disbelief, "You expect me to believe that you've been living with the boy that saved your life and you didn't even give him a proper thank you kiss?" She looked taken aback as Susan nodded in reply, "Wow, here I was assuming you had been shagging him already and you've been too scared to even give him a little thank you kiss."

"Of course I haven't shagged him!" Susan shrieked, her face flushing to match the color of her hair.

"Why not?" Hannah asked, laughing and rolling her eyes as Susan glared at her. "Oh settle down, I'm just kidding. I didn't expect you to have gotten that far yet, but _nothing_?" she asked, clearly still not believing her.

"I kissed him on the cheek..." Susan mumbled, earning herself another incredulous look from her friend.

"A kiss on the cheek? That's the sort of thing you save for the nice guy that you want to let down easy," said the blonde, still seemingly in shock at the lack of action from her best friend. "I mean he's a nice guy, but he saved your life. Plus, you're living with him and he's gotten _hot_," she said, a dreamy look crossing her face as she stared in the direction he had disappeared in, "If I was in your situation, I would do something about it. Who knows, maybe I will anyways."

Susan opened her mouth to scold her friend, but the words died on her lips. She couldn't deny that the thought had crossed her mind, especially over the past few days as they had grown more comfortable around each other. Maybe she wasn't ready for _that_ yet, but perhaps if she could get him by himself a happy birthday snog wouldn't be a bad place to start.

OoOoO

Harry was pulled from his plans to dump his tormenters on his best mate for the night when someone barreled into him for the third time in as many minutes. This time however he was prepared for it and managed to catch the bushy haired missile without much difficulty. "I missed you too, Hermy," he said as she pulled away, dodging as she tried to swat him across the chest for using the hated nickname. He quickly raised his hands in mock surrender as she glared at him.

"How was Austria?" he asked quickly, hoping to distract her. It was mostly successful, as she only gave him a small glare before launching into an account of all the historical magical sites she had visited. Harry listened intently, a small smile on his face as his over enthusiastic friend went on and on, hardly stopping for breath. "I only wish you or Ron had been able to come with me. It was kind of lonely on my own."

Harry frowned, "Weren't your parents with you?"

Hermione looked down uncomfortably, avoiding his eye, "Well I was staying with them but-," she cut off, saved from explaining as their other best friend appeared beside them.

"Hey, I was looking for you two," he said, throwing an arm around each of their shoulders, "C'mon Harry, we've been waiting for you. The twins brought a gift for you and Neville, everyone's waiting for you to come and open it." Despite his protests, Harry found himself pulled along by his best mate towards the rest of the party and deposited beside Neville and the twins, who were standing in front of a large box covered in wrapping paper. He looked at the crowd surrounding them before nervously looking at the box. He turned towards the others, noticing that Neville seemed to be just as nervous as he was.

"Hey guys," he said nervously as he looked around, taking in all the guests before turning to their host, "Nev, uh, care to do the honors?" he asked hopefully, hesitant to open anything from the twins.

Neville looked back at him, before cautiously looking at the twins' wide grins, "I'd love to Harry, but... guests first?" he finished weakly.

The crowd laughed as each weakly attempted to get the other to open the package, before the twins stepped in. "Sorry boys," said George, putting his arm around Neville and drawing him towards the it, while Fred did the same to Harry, "but we _may_ have charmed it so you could only open it together."

Harry winced, and hearing a groan from beside him as everyone else laughed, threw a glance towards Neville, who was looking at the box as if it were about to bite him.

Neville sighed deeply, a look of bleak acceptance plastered across his face, before looking back at him, "I suppose Gryffindors charge, yeah?"

Harry nodded slowly, before reaching forward and grabbing an edge of the paper. "On three, I guess," he said as Neville did the same. "One. Two. Three!" he shouted the last number, giving a large tug and closing his eyes, expecting something to explode all over him. While he wasn't entirely wrong, he was surprised to open his eyes and find that rather than being splattered with some sort of oddly colored goop or turned into a chicken, he, along with the rest of the room, was covered in nothing more than a thin layer of confetti. He looked over at Neville, who seemed just as surprised as he did, before looking at the twins who were laughing uproariously.

"Happy Birthday!" they shouted, before quickly reaching in and pulling out a pair of identical bottles and handing one to each of them. Harry, still somewhat shocked by the fact that the twins prank on them had been the lack of a prank, looked down to read the label, 'Ogden's Firewhiskey.'

OoOoO

Harry watched Ron carefully out of the corner of his eye as he and Hermone talked with Susan and Hannah. He was growing worried for his friend, who had been increasingly quiet over the past hour and had taken to standing quietly with his brothers while they played drinking games with Seamus and Dean. He looked as if he was about to have a nervous breakdown, as his eyes darted anxiously between the door, the clock and Hermione, occasionally raking his hand through his hair. Looking one last time at the clock, he quickly stole the shots that were sitting in front of his brothers and downed them before hurrying towards them, steam pouring from his ears.

"Hey mate, not leaving already are you?" Harry asked, watching as Ginny hurried towards the Floo, fairly certain he already knew the answer.

"Er, yeah, sorry mate, you know how mum is. I'm lucky she let us out at all. I wanted to, ah... I just need to talk to Hermione for a second," he said, throwing nervous glances between the two of them.

Harry looked towards his female best friend, noting the confused look on her face, completely oblivious as to why their red-headed friend was acting so strange, "Of course mate, I'm going to go have a drink with your brothers. I'll see you tomorrow, I'm going to swing by to let you know where I'm staying."

Ron nodded absentmindedly before grabbing Hermione's hand and gently pulling her over by the door. Harry walked over to the twins, who had paused their game to watch.

"Is that what we think it is?" asked Fred as Harry joined them, gesturing towards his younger brother.

"I assume so," Harry said with a shrug, "It's about time too, he's been dancing around it for a year and a half."

"Care to make a wager on your best friends love lives?" asked George with a grin.

Harry shook his head, "No point, she's going to say yes, just watch."

Both twins looked at him skeptically before turning to watch the scene unfold. Hermione quickly changed from confused to curious, to surprised and finished with a big smile before giving Ron a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Harry turned back towards the twins, "Told you so."

"Well of course she said yes. She may not be as in to him as he is into her, but neither of them know that. We were thinking more along the lines of how long they're together."

"Or how long before one of them murders the other," added Fred from his other side.

He looked from one to the other, "You want me to bet on when my best friends' relationship is going to fail?" he asked in disbelief, looking from one to the other. Even for them, this was a bit much.

"Come on mate, it's all in good fun," said Fred, obviously noticing the look on his face. "If it makes you feel better, you can bet on them staying together."

"And wait for them to get married to collect my winnings?" asked Harry, "No thanks. Judging by how long Ron took to ask her out, I'd be old and gray long before that happens."

"You won't have to wait that long," replied George, clearly trying to talk him into taking their bet, "We'll give you a chance. Five galleons says that they break up before the new year."

"Why do you think that?" he asked, wanting to know what could possibly break up his friends'. If he knew what it was beforehand, maybe he could prevent it.

"You mean besides the constant fighting?" asked Fred, to which Harry nodded impatiently, "We can't tell you that, you might not accept our wager."

Harry rolled his eyes. He supposed five galleons was a small price to pay for his friends' potential happiness, "Fine, you're on," he said, shaking both of their hands simultaneously, "Now why are they going to break up before the new year?" he asked.

George looked at him with a smug grin, as if he had just pulled one over on him, "We already told you," he said smugly, "She's not as in to him as he is into her."

"Why do you say that?"

"She has feelings for someone else," replied Fred, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Harry looked back and forth between them, trying to decide whether or not they were lying. Hermione was his best friend, they shared almost everything. If she liked some guy, he doubted he'd be learning about it from these two. "Sure guys," he said with a shake of his head before gesturing towards his two roommates, who were chatting with Parvati and Lavender while they waited to continue their game, "you guys ready to play?"

It turned out the game they were playing required even teams, but Hermione walked over almost as soon as they set up. It took some pleading, but with her good mood, a promise to start his homework this week and a little bit of puppy dog eyes(something he had been practicing despite Remus' insistence that he was immune), he managed to talk her into joining their game and having a few drinks.

OoOoO

Harry stumbled back towards the remnants of the party after saying goodbye to Lavender, Parvati, Susan and Hannah to find it almost deserted. Tonks had pretty much carried Hermione out almost half an hour ago and Luna had left shortly before the other girls. Looking around, the only ones remaining were Neville, Dean and Seamus, who were all passed out, and the twins, who were standing over Neville, chuckling as they grew out his hair and fingernails, turning both a bright pink to match the other two.

"Harry!" said Fred, trying to cover up their work on the comatose birthday boy, "What are you still doing here?"

George wobbled as he turned to stand shoulder to shoulder with his brother in an attempt to hide their handy work, "Yeah, we thought you had left with those cute Hufflepuffs."

Harry shrugged, trying not to flush as his mind went back only moments to both girls leaning in to give him a kiss, before they went home. Quickly deciding that it was better not to let the twins get started on such a topic, he decided to focus on the unconscious boy behind them. "And apparently thought you'd take the opportunity to play a prank on our host?"

Fred looked over his shoulder at Neville, "Well, maybe just a little one," he said, holding his fingers and inch apart and struggling not to laugh.

"Yeah, we were even nice enough to make sure that they would all wear off before noon," added George defensively.

Harry held up his hands to stall them, "Do I look like McGonagall to you two?" he asked with a wide grin. "Do one of you guys mind giving them pink tutu's for me?" he asked, looking between them, "I'd do it myself, but I don't think it's worth another hearing."

They both gaped at him in wonder for a moment before speaking, "Who are you and what have you done with Harry Potter?" asked George suspiciously.

"Can't become a Marauder if I don't play at least an occasional lighthearted prank," Harry said with a shrug, "Besides, I need to practice. I can't exactly let Remus and Tonks get away without retaliating can I?"

His response caused both twins to chuckle before turning to look at each other for a moment. After a short silent conversation Fred turned towards him while George took care of Neville's clothes, changing them into a frilly pink dress. "Well if you're involved in a prank war, we would be remiss if we didn't offer aid to our silent partner. In fact we were going to give a tour of our new establishment to some 'prospective clients' if you'd care to join us."

Before he could ask what prospective clients they were talking about, Angelina and Alicia walked in, each moving over to one of the twins and putting their arms around them, "We can't leave you two alone for a moment, can we?" asked Angelina, attempting to glare at them, but ruining it when she couldn't hide her smile.

"Hey, don't look at us, we just did the dirty work. It was all Harry's idea," said Fred, causing Harry to sock him in the arm. The girls laughed as he tried to put on a hurt look, completely ruined by his brothers laughter, "Alright, it was only half Ickle Harrikins idea."

"Really?" asked Alicia, a look of apparent disbelief on her face.

"Of course," said George with a little bit of pride, placing his free arm around Harry's shoulders, "apparently we've been a good influence on our little Harry here."

"Looks up to us, he does," added Fred, causing both girls to look towards Harry, who nodded, deciding to play along with their little farce. "So Harry, are you interested in coming for a little tour?" asked Fred.

Harry looked at the two couples. While he would love to see what the twins were putting together, he really didn't want to be a fifth wheel, "Maybe some other time guys, I wouldn't want to intrude."

"Come on Harry, it'll be like old times," said Angelina, apparently obvious to the reason for his reluctance, "besides, you can plan for the upcoming Quidditch season. With the four of us gone, one of you is bound to be the Quidditch captain for sure."

"One of us?" Harry asked dumbly.

His thoughts were interrupted as he heard someone else walk into the room. He turned just as she began to speak, "So you guys ready to go?"

OoOoO

"K- Katie?" he stuttered, staring at the terrified looking girl picking herself off the floor beside the bed. He knew he should look away, but found himself frozen, completely unable to move.

The girl in question froze as he spoke, her eyes going wide like a deer caught in the headlights. It was a few seconds before she seemed to realize her situation, causing her to rip the blanket from the bed in an effort to cover herself. Looking down as the covers were ripped from him, Harry noticed that she wasn't the only one wearing nothing but her birthday suit, a revelation which caused them both to once again freeze for a moment, before Harry quickly grabbed the pillow from behind his head to cover himself. They both just stared at each other in stunned silence until a knock at the door caused them both to jump.

"Katie, honey, are you okay?" came the voice from just the other side of the door. Noticing the handle start to move, Katie leaped for the door, stopping it before it could open more than a crack.

"I'm fine, daddy," she said, still holding the door shut.

"Are you sure? What was that noise? And why can't I come in?" asked her father, once again jiggling the handle and causing Harry to quietly look around for his wand, just in case he needed to defend himself. He was grateful that the Wizengamot wasn't out to get him anymore, so that he no longer had to worry so much about defending himself from the constant attempts on his life.

"I'm getting dressed dad. The twins must have slipped one of their pranks into my pocket and I fell when it surprised me," she lied. Harry sighed in relief and thanked Merlin or whatever deity happened to be looking out for him that day as the door handle stopped moving.

"Oh, sorry honey," came the apology from the other side of the door, "I was just coming up to let you know breakfast is almost ready."

"Alright, I'll be down soon," she promised as they listened to the footsteps slowly make their way away from the door and down the stairs. As the footsteps faded away Katie slumped against the door for a moment in relief, before remembering her guest.

Harry watched her, unable to tear his gaze away, "Uh, hey Harry," she said nervously, straightening up and causing Harry to swallow loudly.

"H-Hey Katie," he replied, unsure of what else to say. Thoughts raced through his mind as he tried to remember what had happened the previous night, figure out what he was going to do now and despite his best efforts to avoid them, on how he might get her to drop that blanket again.

They stared at each other awkwardly, neither wanting to be the first to speak, "So, uh, I have to go down for breakfast," Katie said uncertainly, "I'd invite you down, but well, my dad's still home and..." she trailed off.

"And I've had enough people try to kill me to last a lifetime," he joked, attempting to lighten the mood. Katie gave him weak smile in return, but didn't say anything. 'So much for Tonks embarrassing the awkwardness out of me,' he thought to himself as the silence lengthened. He looked around the room for his clothes, but didn't see them as the entire floor seemed to be covered. 'Well, might as well get this over with,' he thought to himself, standing and placing the pillow back on the bed. He heard a sharp intake of breath from beside the door and felt his entire body flushing, but he ignored it as much as he could as he searched for his undergarments.

He searched for a good twenty seconds before he heard Katie come up behind him, "Uh, here you go," she said, her hand holding out his boxers causing an opening in the blanket that made Harry lose his breath for a moment.

"Th- Thanks," he stammered, tearing his gaze away as he noticed her blush and hurried to put them on. Now that he had some knickers on he felt the worst of his nervousness fade and began looking around for the rest of his clothes. He found them making a trail from the door to the bed and quickly put them on, before turning back towards Katie who had used his distraction to put on a bathrobe, "So... I guess I should get going," he said awkwardly.

"Do you think you could sneak out?" Katie asked, wincing as she realized how that sounded. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that," she said hurriedly, "it's just..." she trailed off.

"It's alright, I get it," he said, waving off her apology, "Besides I don't think it would be much better for me if either of your parents caught me here. Does your house have anti-apparition wards?"

"Only one-way, but don't you think it might be suspicious if my parents hear someone apparate out of my room?" she asked, looking towards the window as if she hoped he would climb out through there.

"Don't worry, they won't hear a thing," he assured her, "Bye Katie."

"Happy Birthday Harry," she replied. She moved to hug him before stopping abruptly as her face flushed red once again and instead offering her hand which he shook awkwardly before disappearing with a whisper.

A/N

So what does everyone think? Surprised? I know Katie kind of came out of left field, but it always kind of bothers me in stories when Harry falls for the first girl he dates (other than Cho, who let's be honest hardly even counts), so I wanted to save the the real candidates for later. Let me know what you think. Who should be next? Who should he end up with? Other pairings? Should Remus and Tonks stay together? If not, why would they break up?


	17. What a Waste

**Chapter 17**

What a Waste

Harry opened the door cautiously before making his way inside, cursing the anti-apparition wards they had placed over the house that prevented him from appearing directly in his bedroom. He just hoped Remus and Tonks were still sleeping and wouldn't notice him slinking back to his bed.

He crept carefully up the stairs and down the hall, managing to make it past their room without making a sound. Carefully opening the door he slipped inside, leaning against it and breathing a sigh of relief. 'And my luck holds,' he thought to himself brightly, 'I could probably even go back to sleep for an hour or-'

"Morning pup." His eyes snapped open to find Remus sitting on the corner of his bed, his face pale and drawn as it usually was in the days following a full moon. Tonks stood nearby keeping a wary eye on him in case he over exerted himself.

"H-hey Moony, wotcher Tonks," he said, stammering as he looked warily back and forth between the pair, "Beautiful morning, isn't it?"

"Oh absolutely fantastic Harry," Tonks replied, her overly cheerful smile setting warning bells off in his head, "We woke up early with the sun coming in our window, a nice breeze blowing in through the curtains and the teenager we're supposed to be protecting missing from his bed!"

Harry winced as she shouted, "Sorry. I meant to leave after Susan and Hannah, but I... kind of got distracted."

"Really?" Tonks asked crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow at him, "What was could have been so distracting that you would forget to come home?"

"Well, I went to thank Neville for throwing such a great party, but he was passed out and the twins were pranking him, so I thought I'd join in a little and things kind of... escalated from there," he said, trying to avoid blushing as his mind drifted to what had happened next, or at least the little he remembered of it. After Apparating to the twins new shop they had opened up another bottle of firewhiskey and started the 'real' drinking games as one of the twins had put it. The last thing he actually remembered was offering to give Katie a lift home after the twins had disappeared with Angelina and Alicia, forgetting that she was still a couple weeks away from getting her Apparition license yet.

"Which explains why he was all pink when we went over there this morning," said Remus, obviously expecting him to finish his story, causing Harry to grimace. He had been hoping that they would just assume he had crashed at Neville's.

"Well after I helped prank Nev, they asked me if I wanted to come for the tour of their new shop."

"And so you thought it would be a good idea to sleep in an unprotected shop?" asked Remus disapprovingly.

"We didn't sleep there, they're still living at the Burrow," he said quickly, hoping to mollify his new guardian. Remus had never yelled at him, but Harry found his disappointment worse. Harry had a lot of experience with adults yelling at him, quiet disappointment on the other hand...

"Well thank Merlin for small mercies," said Remus, looking slightly relieved, "though why you couldn't have just Flooed home from the Burrow, I don't understand."

Harry winced again, debating whether or not to tell him where he had actually slept. On the one hand, Remus didn't seem too mad right now and he would avoid having Tonks tease him for the rest of his life, which was a definite positive. On the other, if they ever did find out that he hadn't stayed at the Burrow... Remus trusted him, he didn't want to lose that, "I uh-" he mumbled, deciding to tell the truth and get it over with, "I didn't stay at the Burrow..." he finished, his eyes fixed on his feet.

"And where exactly did you stay?" Remus asked, lowering his head into his hands, obviously dreading the response. "What was that?" he asked, as Harry mumbled the answer so low even the werewolf couldn't hear it.

"K-Katie's," he said, just loud enough for them both to hear. Harry looked up at them slowly, scared of what he might see. Despite his time with the Weasley's, this was the first time in his life he had something even remotely resembling a family of his own and he couldn't bear the thought that he might drive them away by doing something foolish. He knew staying anywhere other than the Den was dangerous, not just for him but for the people he was staying with, which is why he was surprised when instead of scolding or yelling at him, Remus burst out laughing.

Tonks seemed just as surprised, "Remus!" she exclaimed, swatting him on the shoulder.

"Sorry Dora," Remus said as he tried to contain his laughter, "you're right I shouldn't be laughing right now. He just reminds me so much of James sometimes..." he trailed of, a sad smile on his face. Noticing Harry's curious look he explained, "It was the summer after sixth year, Padfoot had been staying with your grandparents at the time and I came to visit for a week. Your parents had been dating for a few months at this point and James decided that it was absolutely essential that they spend their 77 day anniversary together."

"77 day anniversary?" Harry asked, wondering whether a 77 day relationship had any special significance in the magical world and if it was something women would expect him to remember and celebrate.

Remus smiled, "Prongs was something of... well Lily would call it a romantic, though Padfoot and I had another term for it. Anyways, Prongs had decided that 77 was their lucky number and he'd be damned if they were going to spend the 77th day of their relationship apart, so he snuck out leaving Padfoot and I to cover for him."

"But wait, why 77?" Harry asked, his confusion etched clearly on his face.

"Well James always said it was because one 7 is lucky, so two 7's must be even luckier," Remus replied, a large grin on his face as he reminisced about his old friends, "But our theory was that it took 77 tries before Lily finally agreed to go out with him." Harry felt his eyes bulge. It had taken his father 77 attempts to convince his mother to go on a date with him? He had learned from Sirius that his father could be a stubborn bastard when he wanted to be, but 77 times... "We managed to keep it from your grandparents all day," Remus continued, "which wasn't easy by the way. With Voldemort terrorizing the Wizarding community and James being their only child, your grandmother could have given Molly a run for her money when it comes to over-protectiveness, but we managed to keep it from them all day, only for your dad to walk right into them as he tried to sneak back inside the next morning."

Harry couldn't help the sad smile on his face as Remus finished his story. It was always bittersweet to hear stories of his parents, especially since he had learned that it was his fault that Voldemort had been after them. "I'm sorry for worrying you Remus," he said, "you too Tonks. I should have known better, I don't know what I was thinking."

"It's alright pup," Remus said with a sigh, "I understand. Sometimes I forget that you're still a kid and that you still need to act like it once in a while. But you need to be more careful. You can't go running off on your own like that, not telling us where you're going. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if something happened to you."

Harry nodded slowly, "I'm sorry Moony, I didn't mean to worry you. It won't happen again."

Remus smiled weakly at him before pushing himself to his feet, "Alright pup, we'll talk about this more later. Right now I need to get some sleep."

Harry watched his guardian leave before turning towards his bed, jumping in surprise as he found Tonks still there, arms crossed and tapping her foot on the ground, "I hope you don't think you're getting off that easily," she said as she advanced on him, causing him to gulp. With Moony recovering from his transformation he should have known that Tonks would take it upon herself to punish him. He watched her carefully, trying to guess what she was planning, her evil grin making him incredibly nervous. She quickly grabbed him, shoving him onto his bed before jumping up beside him and looking at him expectantly with her legs tucked underneath her. When she finally spoke, he wasn't sure whether he wanted to laugh or cry, "Details. Spill."

OoOoO

A few hours later, Harry looked down in wonder at his hand or more precisely, where his hand should be, as in it's place was a paw covered in black fur.

"Very good Harry," Professor McGonagall said from where she had been observing Tonks, causing him to look over at them. Tonks, being a metamorphmagus, was a natural at transforming herself and had quickly surpassed him in their Animagus training. She was already capable of changing each of her four limbs and was now working on growing her tail. Seeing him looking at her, Tonks gave her half-bare bum a shake and winked saucily at him, causing him to blush and McGonagall to attempt to hide her smile with a glare that he would have missed if he hadn't been looking for it. Over the past few weeks he had spent a lot of time with his Transfiguration teacher and had noticed that despite her stern mask, her favorite students always seemed to be the ones that caused the most trouble, which probably explained why she seemed to have a soft spot for him.

He looked back at his paw, taking in every little detail, before focusing on changing it back into a hand. It took him a few minutes, but eventually he was staring at his fingers once more. "Excellent work Harry," said McGonagall once again as he looked up to find her right beside him.

"Thank you Profe- Er, I mean thank you Minerva," he replied, tripping a little bit over her name. Due to their advanced lessons and him choosing her as his secret-keeper, she had decided to allow him to call her by her first name and he was still getting used to it.

She gave him another one of her rare smiles, something else she had been doing more often over the past few weeks. "I think that should be enough for today," she said, sending Tonks a look to let her know that she had better pull her pants quickly.

Tonks grinned back at her, deliberately taking as much time as she dared before making her way towards them, causing Harry to smile and shake his head wryly, "Are you ready to go pick up Ron and Hermione?"

"In a moment, I have something for you before we go," she replied, seating herself at her desk and looking through one of the drawers.

"Minerva, you shouldn't have," Harry said as he took the comfier of the two chairs across from her, prompting Tonks to stick her tongue out at him.

"Mr. Potter, I am your Professor, it would be highly inappropriate for me to get you a gift," she said, arching an eyebrow at him in amusement before pulling a few Hogwarts letters from her desk and handing him the one with his name, "Your OWL results have come in and I thought I would save a few trips for the school owls."

"Minerva, you shouldn't have," he repeated, eyeing the letter as if it were a poisonous snake. Both women laughed as he resignedly took his letter from her, before opening it and unfolding the parchment inside.

Ordinary Wizarding Level Results for Harry James Potter

Pass Grades:

Outstanding (O)

Exceeds Expectantions (E)

Acceptable (A)

Fail Grades:

Poor (P)

Dreadful (D)

Troll (T)

Results:

Astronomy – A

Care of Magical Creatures – O

Charms – O

Defense Against the Dark Arts – O

Divination – D

Herbology – E

History of Magic – T

Potions – A

Transfiguration – E

Harry read the parchment several times, rereading his scores. He had known he would fail Divination, as he had absolutely no aptitude for it and collapsing halfway through his History of Magic exam probably had something to do with scoring a T, but at least he had passed everything else. He handed the parchment to Tonks, who had been trying to read over his shoulder. Picking up his envelope again to get his supply list, he noticed something extra inside. Curious, he tilted it over, allowing a badge to fall into his hand. Expressionless, he looked down at it, reading the two letters on the front over and over.

McGonagall seemed disappointed by his lack of response to the badge in his hand, "Are you alright Harry? I thought you would be excited to be named Quidditch captain."

"So did I," he said quietly, examining the badge in his fingers, "it's just that... I don't even know if I'll have time to _play_ Quidditch this year, let alone run the team. Between classes, homework, friends, teaching, making lesson plans, my own workouts, Animagus training, full moons..." he trailed off, still looking at the badge in his fingers. If he had been given this last year he would have been overjoyed, but now he wasn't so sure. He enjoyed Quidditch, but after being banned from it for most of the previous year he had realized it was flying that he had truly missed. The wind running through his hair as he plunged towards the ground or the feeling of nearly being pulled from his broom as he took a turn at full speed. He handed the badge to McGonagall, "I'm sorry Professor, I can't accept this."

"You're sure about this?" she asked, a surprised look across her face.

Harry nodded, "Yes. If things were different..." he sighed, "But they're not. I'd love to be Quidditch Captain, but I just don't think I'll have the time this year."

His head of house nodded slowly as she took the badge from him, "It is your decision Harry. I can't say I'm not a little disappointed, but I'm proud of you. To turn down such an offer in favor of helping your classmates shows a lot of maturity," she said, before standing and picking up the small stack of letter she had removed from her desk, "Now, it's time to meet your friends."

OoOoO

"Try it on, try it on!" Tonks cried out excitedly as Harry finished unwrapping her gift, pulling out a beautiful black leather jacket.

Harry quickly complied, pulling it on and zipping it up, "What do you guys think?" he asked.

"It looks great pup," said Remus from his place at Tonks side, "you look just like your godfather."

Harry beamed at his guardian as the metamorph beside him sat almost bouncing in her seat, "So, do you like it?" she asked eagerly.

"I love it, thanks Tonks," he said, pulling her into a tight hug. After letting her go, he took off the jacket, placing it beside the Quidditch gloves he had received from Ron. The watch Hermione had bought him was snug on his wrist, having finally replaced the one that he had broken beneath the Black Lake.

"Well I suppose that just leaves me," said Remus, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a rolled up parchment with a ribbon tied around it. He handed the parchment to Harry, who eagerly pulled off the ribbon, only to find that the parchment within was blank.

Harry regarded the parchment in confusion for a moment before a look of understanding and delight crossed his face. Before he even knew what he was doing, his wand was in his hand, moving towards the parchment, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." At once thin lines began to spread from the point his wand had touched, joining and crisscrossing until they resolved into a map of Hogwarts. "But- How?" he asked, looking up at Moony as he did, "I thought the map was destroyed with the rest of my things."

"It was. I made a new one," Remus explained pointing at the title near the top, "with just a few minor modifications."

Harry read the spot where he had pointed, 'Messrs. Moony, Padfoot and Prongs are proud to present The Marauder's Map.' "You got rid of the rat," he said in surprise.

Remus nodded, "Among other things. He didn't do much to help with it anyways, it was all he could do to try to keep up with James and Sirius's Animagus training."

Harry looked back and forth between the map and Moony with tears in his eyes. He had been heartbroken when he had realized that the original had been destroyed, as it was one of the only things that he had from his parents, one of the few remaining pieces of his father's legacy. "Thank you," he said, hugging his guardian tightly. When they released each other he could see tears in Moony's eyes as well, mourning the loss of his packmates, Padfoot and Prongs. They stood in silence, unsure of what else to say, until Tonks interrupted in an attempt to restore the lighthearted fun they had been having earlier.

"Cake time!" she said excitedly, quickly disappearing into the kitchen before reappearing just as suddenly carrying a large cake with 16 lit candles. "Happy Birthday to you..." she sang as she reentered the room, quickly joined by the others. Harry sat in silence, a wide grin on his face as he listened to his friends sing him happy birthday for the first time in his life. "Happy Birthday dear Harry, Happy Birthday to you!"

Hermione hugged him from one side as they finished, while Ron pounded him on the back from the other, "Happy Birthday mate, blow out your candles." Harry gave him a wide grin before turning to his cake and taking a deep breath.

"Wait!" said Tonks, stopping him, "Close your eyes and make a wish."

Harry shook his head and rolled his eyes at her, but decided to play along. Closing his eyes he debated what he should wish for. The obvious answer was getting rid of Voldemort, but wishing for someone's murder, even someone evil seemed a little bit dark for a birthday wish. He was so intent on his task that he didn't see the mischievous grins passed between his guardians as he took a deep breath and attempted to blow out his candles, only for the entire cake to blow up in his face as he extinguished the last one.

Harry gaped in amazement, his face, glasses and upper torso covered in bits of cake and icing, as Remus and Tonks burst out laughing. Slowly reaching up, he used a finger to brush the worst of the pastry off his glasses and took a look around the table. While Remus and Tonks didn't seem to be affected, no doubt because they were the masterminds behind it, Ron and Hermione were almost as filthy as he was. Ron, who was the most composed of the three of them, took it in stride, no doubt due to his years of experience dealing with the twins and was picking bits of cake of his face. "Not bad," he said, nonchalantly swallowing a particularly large piece that had been stuck to his nose, "seems like a bit of a waste though." The four other people around the table couldn't help but stare at the redhead, who continued licking icing off his finger, before they burst out in laughter. Looking around with a small grin, Ron slid a finger along his cheek, gathering all the icing there as everyone else collected themselves. He looked carefully at the cake and icing built up on his finger, before calmly flicking it to his right, hitting Tonks square between the eyes.

Once again, the room broke out in laughter, all except the metamorph glaring at her boyfriend who seemed to laughing hardest of all. "Think it's funny do you?" she asked dangerously. Unable to respond, Remus could only nod as he tried to catch his breath. By the time he realized his mistake it was too late, as Tonks had grabbed a large handful of cake from the table and rubbed it into the werewolf's face. Remus stopped laughing and looked at her in shock as she gazed back with a self-satisfied smirk. They stared at each other for a moment before each dived at the cake, grabbing handfuls of pastry and icing. Harry couldn't help but laugh as the two of them wrestled, each trying to smear the other with pastry. Wiping the rest of the icing off his glasses, Harry looked toward his friends. Ron was focused on the remains of the cake, trying to move the biggest surviving piece onto his plate, while Hermione had already cleaned most of the cake from her face and was using a handkerchief to wash off the rest as she watched the older couple fighting. She had just managed to get the last bit when a large glob smacked right into the side of her face with a loud 'thwop!' causing her to freeze.

Slowly she reached up and wiped away a large chunk before turning her attention towards her two best friends. She quickly discounted Ron, who was looking sadly at his empty plate and instead turned her attention to her raven-haired friend, who was currently whistling quietly, twiddling his thumbs and carefully avoiding looking anywhere near her direction. Just the barest hint of a smile played around the ends of his mouth as he turned his attention towards her, "Hermione, looks like you missed a –" he ducked as a handful of icing flew over his head, before making a dash for the kitchen cackling madly, a bushy-haired bookworm hot on his heels.


	18. Moony's Method

**Chapter 18**

Moony's Method

"Are you sure you can't stay any longer?" Harry asked as he led his best friends towards the Floo, "It's my birthday, your mum would understand, wouldn't she?"

The red-head shook his head sadly, "Sorry mate, mum was pretty clear. If I'm not home by eight o'clock sharp, I can kiss the rest of my summer hols goodbye." He glanced towards the clock, noting the time, "I'm already grounded for the next two weeks, I'd rather not lose the last two as well."

Harry sighed in resignation, "It's alright, I'd rather be able to hang out for a couple weeks rather than just one night."

Ron turned to him as they reached the fireplace, "Well, I guess I'll see you later. Happy Birthday mate," he said, drawing Harry into a one armed hug and slapping him on the back.

"Thanks mate, I'll see you in a couple weeks," Harry replied as they released each other. Ron however made no move to the fireplace, instead he stared at his own feet, occasionally darting nervous glances towards Hermione. Confused by his friends behavior, he looked towards his other friend, who was doing much the same. He gazed at each of them, puzzled by their odd behavior until it hit him, "Oh, err... I suppose you two want to say goodbye privately?" he asked, causing both of them to blush.

"Er, yeah mate, if you wouldn't mind," Ron said, while Hermione stood quietly on his other side, blushing brightly as she studied the ground at her feet.

"Of course, I'll just be in the other room when you're done," he said to Hermione, noting the relieved grins on each of their faces before he turned and headed towards the door. Unable to resist, he turned back as he reached the door, "Oh, there's a broom cupboard just down the hall. In case you guys want to get comfortable in them before we get back to school," he said, ducking out of the room before his friends could retaliate.

OoOoO

Harry watched his best friend carefully as they slowly circled each other, each waiting for the other to make a move, "You're going pay for your little joke Potter," she growled in an attempt to intimidate him.

It might have worked if he hadn't noticed her eyes shining in anticipation. Despite her general rule-abiding, bookworm persona, Hermione had a thrill seeking side that she had found during their DA meetings. Harry adopted an air of indignation in an attempt to rile her up, "Joke? Me? I would never," he protested, suppressing a grin as she narrowed her eyes at him, "I was just offering up some advice to my two closest friends."

"Oh, and what would you know about getting comfortable in a broom closet?" she asked, throwing him off guard and giving her a chance to throw a pair of stunners at him, followed by a blue hex that he didn't recognize.

He sidestepped the stunners before calling out a quick, "_Protego_," to block the unknown hex. Harry shook his head disapprovingly at his friend, "I never thought I'd see the day where Hermione Granger would try to use a distraction to win a duel."

"As if I need a distraction to beat you," she replied confidently.

Harry responded with spells, "_Stupefy, Incarcerous, Confundus_," he said, in quick succession, starting the duel for real. They started slowly, testing each other with quick precise attacks, but before long they were trading spells back and forth as fast as they could shout, Harry relying on his speed and power, while Hermione used her almost encyclopedic knowledge of spells to try to catch him off guard. Still, the last few weeks of practice began to show quickly as Hermione's stamina started to lag. Seeing his chance Harry fired a Silencio, deliberately missing and hitting the couch behind her. Hermione ignored his missed spell and pressed her attack, throwing everything she had into it in a last ditch effort to overwhelm him. Rolling calmly to the side, he snapped off a pair of silent stunners, catching her off guard. Barely getting her shield up in time, she never noticed his extra wand motion, summoning the couch behind her before snapping off disarming and incarcerous charms. She never had a chance as the sofa knocked her legs out from under her, while his other spells disarmed and trapped her.

OoooO

Hermione watched as Harry slowly made his way towards her, twirling her wand through his fingers victoriously, before vanishing the ropes that bound her to the couch. "You cheated," she said grumpily, as she stood and snatched her wand from his hand.

"Cheat? Me? I would never," Harry replied, his feigned outrage ruined by the smile playing at the ends of his lips.

Hermione crossed her arms and arched an eyebrow at him as she debated hexing the smirk of his face, "Of course not. It just never occurred to you to tell me you knew how to do non-verbal magic," she said sarcastically, "I mean it's not like it's a big deal or anything."

"Doesn't make it cheating," he said with a grin, no longer even attempting to hide his smile, " You need to be prepared for the unexpected. Constant Vigilance!" he said, shouting Moody's motto.

She opened her mouth to argue, but decided to close it without making a sound, unable to find a fault in his logic. "When did you even learn to cast silently?" she asked instead, her anger quickly fading to be replaced with curiosity.

Harry summoned a book from where it had been lying near the wall, "Moony started teaching me a couple weeks ago," he said before banishing it just as quickly with a wave of his wand.

Hermione felt her eyes widen in shock, "A couple weeks?" she asked, the astonishment clear in her voice.

"Give or take a couple days yeah, why?"

Hermione was almost floored by his nonchalant admission. "Harry, do you have any idea how incredible that is? With only two weeks of practice you cast those stunners almost on top of each other. Most adults can't even cast that quickly," she said causing Harry's eyes to widen in surprise. 'Of course he doesn't know,' she thought to herself in exasperation, 'leave it to Harry to remain completely oblivious while he accomplishes something that shouldn't be possible.'

"I didn't know," he said with a shrug as if it wasn't a big deal, "I guess Moony's new teaching method must actually work."

Hermione perked up immediately, 'Maybe it wasn't just Harry,' she thought to herself, 'Maybe Remus came up with some revolutionary teaching method. He _was_ a brilliant teacher after all.' "Can you teach me?" she asked immediately, her voice quivering in excitement at the prospect of learning something new. She knew they would be starting non-verbal spells at the beginning of the year, but the chance to get a head start was too good to pass up.

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea," Harry said with a wince, "Moony's method was pretty... intense."

She bit her lip as she considered his warning. Harry wasn't much of one for exaggerating, but she was never one to back down from a challenge. "Please Harry," she begged, "you could save me weeks of practice." She watched him as he considered whether or not to teach her. She sighed internally, sometimes Harry really could be overprotective. "Oh come on, I'm sure it wasn't that bad," she snapped as he began to shake his head, "you made it out alive."

"Fine," he said, sighing dramatically, before assuming the tone he had used while teaching the DA. "First, I want you to cast a '_Protego_' while concentrating on the feel of your magic as it snaps into place." Hermione felt her face break into a wide grin, as she gave him a quick hug before jumping to follow his instructions. She cast her shield four times before she had memorized the feel of her magic rushing through her. "Go stand over there," Harry said, pointing to a spot on the other side of the room.

Hermione hurried to the spot he had pointed to, before turning to face him, "Now what?" she asked. Or at least she tried to. She was so surprised by her lack of voice that she didn't even move as a jet of light hit her feet. She tried to move, but found that her feet were stuck to the floor. "Harry?" she tried to ask, her voice still missing.

She looked at her best friend, "I guess I should have warned you," he said, grinning mischievously at her as she eyed him warily, "Moonys' method is to shoot stinging hexes at you until you can cast a shield." Hermione eyes widened as she saw him cast his first spell at her. Unable to move her feet she ducked, almost losing her balance but managing to avoid the spell. "Hermione, the point of this isn't to dodge," he said, casting another hex at her, forcing her to lean to avoid it and fall backwards onto her arse, her feet still stuck to the floor.

"Come on Hermione, this was your idea," Harry said laughing loudly as she glared at him, "Alright, alright. As entertaining as this is, I suppose it isn't fair to force to go through what I did."

Hermione sighed in relief as he hit her with a, '_Finite_,' before the last part of his sentence registered with her, "Wait, you were being serious? You learned to cast silently like _that_?" she asked as she scrambled to her feet.

"Well I've definitely never been Sirius," he replied, causing her to groan at his stupid joke, "but yeah, that's how I learned so quick. Moony says I learn better under pressure."

Hermione watched as Harry began cleaning up, repairing all the furniture that had been broken during their fight and returning it to its original position, all without saying a word. She couldn't help but be amazed by how easy he made it seem, his wand hardly pausing between one action and the next. And after only two weeks of practice. She was watching him so intently, that she didn't notice when the last piece of furniture, the couch that he had used to knock her off her feet, returned to its place against the wall. "You ready to go?" he asked, leading the way towards the door, stopping after a few steps when he realized she wasn't following. "Hermione?"

"No," she pointed her wand at her feet, muttering a quick spell to stick her feet to the floor, "If it will help me learn quicker I want to learn the way you did," she said, before pointing her wand at herself and muttering a silencing charm. She could only hope that she wasn't making a huge mistake.

OoOoO

"Ow! Is that really necessary?" Harry demanded, rubbing his shoulder.

Hermione responded by hitting him once again before leaning back against the armrest of the loveseat, "Well you just spent nearly an hour shooting hexes at me, so yes, I would say it is warranted."

Harry flicked one of the feet resting in his lap as he grumbled under his breath. Maybe he had had a little too much fun with the lesson, but she _had_ asked for it. Literally. He was about to tell her so when he was interrupted by Tonks.

"Harry we'll have to postpone our lesson with Minnie tomorr-," she said, cutting off as she noticed that they weren't alone, "Oh, hi Hermione, I didn't realize you were still here."

"You have summer lessons with Professor McGonagall?" Hermione asked curiously, "You never told me about that."

"We've been working on making the DA a school approved group," Tonks said quickly, trying to cut Hermione off before she could ask too many questions.

Hermione gave him a strange look, "But you told me in your last letter that you were pretty much done with that..." she said before turning to Tonk, "And you just said that it was a lesson." Harry gave Tonks a look asking for help to which she shrugged helplessly. Looking at his bushy haired best friend he could almost see the gears turning in her head as she surveyed them suspiciously. It only took her a moment for everything clicked into place, "You're learning to become an Ani-!" she exclaimed loudly, cutting off as he lunged at her, covering her mouth with his hand.

"Shhh!" he said with a finger to his lips, "Not so loud."

"You decided to become an Animagus without me?" she whispered dejectedly.

Harry winced guiltily. After all the times they had discussed trying the Animagus transformation he should have known that she would be hurt by him doing it without her. "I'm sorry 'Mione," he apologized, "I wasn't thinking. With Padfoot gone, I just wanted to help Moony."

She regarded him for a moment before she replied, "It's alright, I guess," she said with a sigh, "I suppose you had a good reason to do it without me."

"You mean I had a good reason to start without you," he said with a grin, "I'm sure Minnie wouldn't have a problem with an extra student, especially not if it's you."

Hermione smiled at him, "You think so?"

"Of course, you're probably her favorite student. You can come with us tomorrow."

Tonks interrupted before she could respond, "No she can't Harry, not tomorrow at least. That's what I was coming in to tell you, I canceled our lesson with Minnie tomorrow."

"What? How come?" he asked in annoyance. He was just starting to get the hang of it, if anything he wanted more time to practice, not less.

"With Susan gone I have to go back to regular duties on Monday, so Remus and I decided that we would pick up your school supplies tomorrow," she explained. "Would you like to join us Hermione?"

"Sure, that sounds great," she replied excitedly.

"Well, then I'll see you two tomorrow," Tonks said, as she turned to leave the room before stopping at the door, "We have an Order meeting later that night, so we're going to be leaving pretty early. It would probably be easier if you stayed here tonight. Oh and I wouldn't stay up too late Harry, we start training again bright and early."

"Sure thing Tonks. Good night," he said, waving as she left.

"So you're still running, fighting and learning Occlumency every morning?" Hermione asked curiously after the metamorph had left.

"Not every morning," Harry replied, "We alternate running and Occlumency lessons and only do the hand-to-hand stuff once or twice a week. Now that I know the basics and can hold my Occlumency shields while fighting it isn't really worthwhile to spend so much time on it, so we spend most of our time dueling and doing casting speed and accuracy practice."

"Do you think I could join you?" she asked hesitantly.

"You want to run and learn to fight?" he asked, "Why?"

"For the same reasons you do."

"You have an seemingly immortal homicidal maniac trying to kill you too?" he asked jokingly.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "You're so over-dramatic. No, I don't have a homicidal maniac after me specifically, but I doubt his cronies would hesitate if they got the chance. Besides, do you think I'd let you do this on your own?"

Harry sighed to himself. He actually had been hoping that she would choose not to get involved or at least wait until they had graduated. "I guess not. But you'll have to learn to Apparate, I don't fancy knocking on your door every morning to pick you up. Unless you'd rather stay here?"

Hermione's face lit up at the mention of staying at the Den, "I'd love to. If it isn't a problem of course."

"Of course not, with Susan gone you'll even get your room to yourself."

"And you'll still teach me how to Apparate?" she asked enthusiastically.

"I suppose," he said, pretending to act annoyed at his friends predictable response to learning something new.

"Thank you Harry," she said, hugging him tightly and completely ignoring his feigned lack of enthusiasm.

Harry shook his head and laughed lightly, "You're welcome," he said, squeezing her in return, "but we should go to bed. Tonks wasn't kidding when she said early."


	19. No Tea for Me

**Chapter 19**

No Tea for Me

Hermione woke up early the next morning to someone gently shaking her. Pulling away, she tried to bury herself in her pillow, but whoever was shaking her refused to let up. Groaning loudly, she rolled over intending to rid herself of the nuisance that was bothering her and return to the sweet caress of sleep, when she felt herself suddenly being thrown off the bed onto the floor. "Wakey, wakey 'Mione!"

Hermione groaned in pain and glared up at her former best friend as he grinned at her from the edge of her bed. "Ugh, what time is it?" she demanded, closing her eyes as she debated whether or not it was worth getting expelled to hex the infuriating smirk off his face.

"Time to wake up sleepyhead," he replied. Bounding from the bed he grabbed the bag he had left on the dresser on the way in and tossed it towards his comatose friend. It landed on her stomach with just enough force to incite a small grunt in response, "Hurry up and get ready, we'll meet you in the training room to set up your disguise." Leaving the room Harry shook his head, assuming the grunt and the gym bag hurled at his head meant that she would be down soon and made his downstairs to set his own disguise.

He had already finished his disguise by the time he heard Tonks and Hermione coming down the stairs, so he headed towards the kitchen in hopes of finding a pre-workout snack. Opening the door he found Remus staring bleary-eyed at a bowl of oatmeal, carefully watching each spoonful as if it were taking all his concentration to avoid spilling his breakfast. "Morning Moony!" he said cheerfully, slapping his guardian on the back as he walked in and causing his oatmeal to splash all over his robes. He couldn't help but laugh as the werewolf quietly growled at him, "I thought Padfoot was supposed to be the cranky one," Harry said cheekily, grabbing an apple as he sat next to his guardian.

"We were all the cranky one," Remus grumbled quietly in response, "'cept Lil of course, she was always an early bird."

Harry smiled, always happy to learn something new about his mother, "So then, what's got the big grumpy wolf up with the sun this morning?"

Remus took a long swig of tea before replying, "Dumbledore wanted to meet this morning," he said with a grimace as he put his cup down.

Harry looked at him in confusion. He thought there was supposed to be an Order meeting this evening, why would Dumbledore need to meet with Moony this morning if they were having another meeting later? Unable to think up an answer to his question himself, he asked Remus.

"You know how he is," Moony replied with a shrug, "I guess he has something he doesn't want to talk about in front of the rest of the Order." He looked up, noticing the grimace on Harry's face, "Don't worry pup, I doubt it has anything to do with you. I told Dumbledore I wasn't getting in the middle and that if he wanted information he could speak to you himself."

"Thanks Remus," Harry replied, giving his guardian a grateful look. He knew how difficult it was for Remus to defy the old man. More than just being the Leader of the Light, he had given Remus the best years of his life by allowing him to go to Hogwarts when no other headmaster would have even considered it. Despite all of his failings Remus respected him, looked up to him even. And yet he had taken Harry's side at almost every opportunity. "So what do you think he wants?"

"I'm not sure," Remus said with a shrug, "but it probably has something to do with the werewolves. We've heard rumors that Greyback has been gathering a large number of followers and thrown in with Voldemort. If I had to guess, I would say that Dumbledore probably wants me to try to find out whether or not it's true and to try to convince as may of them as possible to stay neutral."

Harry nodded thoughtfully as his guardian spoke. It seemed like the sort of mission that Dumbledore would entrust to Remus and with Greyback coming out of hiding it would be essential for them to cut off his supply of new recruits. "You don't think that may be a little... dangerous?" he asked. He knew Remus was capable of defending himself, but if he went to the werewolves he could end up walking right into an ambush with no backup.

"Don't worry pup, I'll be alright," Remus said with a tired smile, "I've been doing this since you were in diapers."

Harry sighed in resignation, knowing that there wasn't anything he could do to change Remus' mind. He would just have to trust him to make it home safe. They ate in silence until Harry heard the door to the training room open and quickly made his way towards the front door. Tonks was already halfway down the hall when he left the kitchen, wearing the same black shorts and pink top that she had on their first day together as she tied her hair up into a loose ponytail. Despite his guilt at ogling his guardians girlfriend, he couldn't help himself. He didn't even look up as the door to the training room opened again, his eyes glued to Tonks' backside as her hips swayed from side to side.

The sound of someone clearing their throat broke him from his trance and he turned to find Tonks looking at him, a mischievous grin on her face. He looked back and forth between the two Tonks' for a second before he realized what had happened. He turned back to the real Tonks just in time to see her open her mouth, "Her-mphm," was all she got out before his hand shot forward, covering her mouth and muffling whatever no doubt embarrassing thing she had been about to say. His head quickly turned towards his best friend, but she hadn't seemed to notice as she turned the corner leading to the front door. Breathing a sigh of relief as Hermione walked out of sight, he removed his hand from Tonks mouth.

"You saw nothing," he said, making his voice as threatening as he could manage.

Laughing, she reach up and pinched his cheek before walking around him, "Aww, aren't you adorable when you try to be all scary."

Realizing he had made a mistake Harry changed tactics, "Seriously Tonks, please don't," he pleaded, following after her as she made her way to the front door, "Tonks! C'mon Tonks..."

OoOoO

A few hours later Harry was back in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place, cooking lunch and throwing dirty glances at Tonks while they waited for Remus to return from his meeting. While she had yet to tell his best friend that he had been ogling her behind her back, she had dropped enough hints for someone with even a fraction of Hermione's intelligence to figure out that something was up.

"It's such a _bum_mer that Susan had to leave, don't you think Hermione?" Tonks asked, a wide grin on her face, "Harry aren't you just _bum_med out?"

"Oh there are definitely others that I would prefer to have left instead," he replied, the scowl he directed towards the metamorph leaving little doubt as to who his comment was directed towards.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, "That was completely uncalled for." Harry's scowled at his best friend. Uncalled for? Tonks had spent the last four hours teasing him about perving on his best friend after he had all but begged her not to. If anyone deserved to have some bitter, sarcastic comments directed their way it was her. Of course he couldn't tell Hermione that. Not only would it make things weird between them, but she and Ron had just started dating and he didn't want to be the guy that hit on his best mate's girl.

"Yeah Harry, no need to be such an _ass_," Tonks said with a grin, knowing that he couldn't respond without letting Hermione know what he was hiding. He grumbled a few impolite words under his breath in response, though apparently not quietly enough.

"What exactly are you so embarrassed about?" Hermione asked in a huff, apparently tired of his evasiveness. "Did Tonks –"

she cut off as the kitchen door opened and Remus strode into the room.

"Oh Moony, thank Merlin you're back," he sighed in relief, praising his guardians good timing as he quickly served everyone's lunch. It wasn't quite finished yet, but it had cooked for long enough to prevent anyone from getting sick and he was hoping Hermione might forget the entire thing if he could just distract her for a little while. "We should eat quick, I heard from Neville that a lot of the shops are closing earlier these days, wouldn't want to have to go back," he said before he quickly began shoveling food into his mouth.

Remus looked at him funny as he attacked the food on his plate with a ferocity that would have impressed even Ron, "What's up with him?" he asked looking at Hermione.

She shrugged in response, "I don't know, Tonks has been teasing him about something all morning," she explained, still a little miffed that he wouldn't tell her anything, "I assume it has something to do with a girl, but since neither of them will say I can only guess."

"Oh, that sounds like fun," Tonks squealed, dropping her fork in her excitement, "let's do that!"

Hermione looked at her quizzically, "Let's do what?" she asked.

"Guess!" Tonks exclaimed cheerfully, her food forgotten as she quickly pulled Hermione's away so that she had her undivided attention. "You guess and I'll let you know if you're right."

Hermione seemed to consider her offer for a moment as Harry tried desperately to protest. Sadly his previous plan of 'eat really fast so that you don't have to answer questions' had backfired on him as his mouth was too full to object. "Alright," she said, "so am I right –"

"Hang on!" Harry exclaimed quickly as he managed to swallow the rest of the food in his mouth, "This isn't fair!"

"Hmm, he has a point there Dora," Remus agreed. Harry beamed at him, once again thankful that he had returned when he did. "I think we should put it to a vote. All those in favor of putting a halt to this game, raise your right hand and say 'aye!'"

Harry immediately raised his right hand, shouting "Aye!" a little louder than was strictly necessary. Unfortunately he was the only one.

"All those opposed?" asked Remus, raising his right hand along with both the girls. "And the nays have it," he said, shooting Harry an apologetic glance. Harry scowled at him in return, wondering why he had been so relieved when the old Marauder had walked in the door. "Alright, to make it fair you only get three questions, one for each of us that voted in your favor." Harry considered arguing, but decided to return to his lunch instead. After all, a three question limit was better than nothing.

"So, was I right when I assumed it was about a girl?" Hermione asked, to which Tonks nodded and gave a long, drawn out 'mmhmmm'. Harry sighed dramatically. He supposed he deserved this for teasing Hermione about her and Ron last night, he just hoped it didn't make things awkward between them. "Knowing Harry he wouldn't have shared anything willingly, so I assume you found out by accident?" Tonks nodded again, confirming her guess. Hermione turned to him, smiling mischievously, "Huh, I guess I was wrong last night. Maybe you _were_ speaking from experience when you suggested that Ron and I get comfortable snogging in a broom closet."

Harry almost choked on his tongue, "What?" he asked, his voice cracking despite his best efforts.

Hermione grinned at him, smirking like the cat that had caught the canary, "It's pretty obvious Harry. I kind of had my suspicions after the party, I'm just a little surprised you were too embarrassed to tell me. Sure, it's a little embarrassing that Tonks walked in on you two, but it's not like it's that big a deal."

Harry racked his brain, trying to figure out what in Merlin's name she was talking about, "What do you mean us two?"

"You and Susan of course," Hermione said, "Tonks did walk in on the two of you snogging, didn't she?"

Harry slowly shook his head, torn between relief that she had been wrong and confusion as to why she thought he had been snogging Susan. Sure they had kissed, but it had only been the one time at his birthday party and Tonks definitely hadn't walked in on them.

"Ooohh, sorry Hermione," Tonks said, laughing loudly at the surprised look on the younger witch's face, "no such luck."

"Really?" asked Hermione, her expression flickering too fast to read, "Well if you didn't walk in on him and Susan, what is he so embarrassed about?"

Tonks opened her mouth to explain, but luckily Remus came to his rescue, "Sorry girls, but I think that's enough gossiping on Harry's love life. He'll tell you when he's ready," prompting Harry to flash him a look of gratitude, once again thankful for his guardians presence. "Besides, we need to get going if we're going to get all your shopping done before all the stores close."

OoOoO

Harry walked alongside Remus, thankful that he had already finished most of his own school shopping as they made their way towards their last stop, Madam Malkins, so that Hermione could get new robes. In front of them Hermione was grilling Tonks on the contents of some of the books she had bought and what the preferred reading order was, going so far as to ask which chapters of which books should be read first. Meanwhile Harry found himself watching the other shoppers, noticing the harried looks that he'd missed the last time he was in the alley. Despite the fact that it was only a little past five the alley had almost cleared out. The few that remained all moved about in groups, avoiding conversation with anyone that wasn't part of their tight knit circle. Most refused to so much as look anyone else in the eye.

Harry looked up at his guardian as a small family scurried past, the parents hurrying their young children along as they avoided looking at anyone or anything that might attract attention towards them. "Was it this bad last time?" he asked as Remus gave the passing couple a quick glance before returning his gaze to the alley, searching for possible threats.

"Worse," he replied, his eyes fixed on a pair of scruffily dressed men coming out of Knockturn Alley as they began walking in the same direction as them. The two didn't seem to pay even the slightest bit of attention to them however, stopping at the cafe beside Ollivanders. "You-Know-Who has hardly even resumed his reign of terror. Six months from now this will seem like a bustling crowd." Harry looked around the sparsely populated alley, finding it hard to imagine that Diagon Alley, once the bustling center of Wizarding Britain, could so easily turn into what was essentially a ghost town.

They soon arrived at Madam Malkins, but no sooner had they walked in the door than they heard a familiar voice echoing from the fitting area at the back of the shop, "Watch those pins woman! Do you have any idea who I am?" They rounded a rack of dress robes to find Madam Malkin calmly apologizing to Draco Malfoy as she fitted him for his school robes.

"I'm terribly sorry young sir. We're done now, would you like to take a look?" Malfoy growled something at her under his breath but moved towards the mirror and examined himself. He stood there for a few moments before the seamstress disturbed his thoughts, "How do they feel, sir? Too tight, too loose?"

Malfoy stared into the mirror for another moment before responding, "I suppose they'll have to do, won't they," he sneered at the seamstress, "I'll take four more sets in your finest material as well."

"Of course," Madam Malkin replied, bobbing her head as she helped Malfoy out of his new robe before heading towards the front to package it up. Her eyes lit up as she noticed another group of potential customers waiting, "I'll be right with all of you," she said before hurrying to the front, her heels clicking as she rushed to make sure her new clients didn't leave without buying anything.

Harry however hardly paid her any mind, his attention focused on Malfoy as his held a hushed conversation with his mother, "... not a child Mother. I'm perfectly capable of shopping on my own." He strained his hearing, but Narcissa's reply was to faint for him to hear. Luckily Draco didn't seem to have the same amount of discretion, his voice easily overheard, "As if anyone in Knockturn Alley would dare lay a finger on me. You heard father, it is my task to –" he cut off as the sounds of Madam Malkins heels clicked towards them.

"Here is the first set Mr Malfoy. I will need to order the material for the rest, so they won't be ready until the day after tomorrow," she said, handing a package to him before subtly steering him towards the door. Malfoy allowed himself to be ushered out, hardly sparing a sneer for the unrecognized group waiting near the door.

Harry waited until the door had closed and Tonks had distracted Madam Malkin before moving to follow him, however he was stopped abruptly as Moony put a hand on his shoulder.

"What do you think you're doing?" Remus hissed quietly as Madam Malkin led the girls towards the back of the shop.

Harry tried to pull his arm away, but the werewolf had a firm grip on him, "I'm going to follow him, see what he is up to. You heard him Moony, he's planning something and I plan on finding out what that is."

"Don't be stupid Harry. Do you really think you could just stroll down Knockturn Alley unnoticed? Even with your disguise, you would have every thug and pickpocket eyeing you from your second step."

"Well what do you want me to do?" he asked, watching Malfoy through the window as he strolled down the alley, "We've went over this, I'm not going to just stand aside because it might be dangerous."

"What I want is for you to stay here. I'll follow him, see what the little prick is planning."

"I'll come with you," Harry replied, once again moving towards the door.

Remus put on a hand on his chest, stopping him in his tracks, "No, I'll draw less attention on my own," he said, "If I'm not back by the time you're done head home, I'll meet you there."

"But–"

"No buts," he replied, his tone brooking no argument. "This is as much for my safety as it is for yours. I'll be much more inconspicuous on my own."

Harry scowled at his guardian, but realized that he made a good point. While he had only been down Knockturn Alley the one time, it hadn't seemed like the sort of place that an average looking teenager would blend in. "Fine. But if anything happens to you..." he left his words hanging, unsure how he would react to yet another person he cared about being hurt.

"Don't worry pup, I'll be fine," Moony said giving him an affectionate pat on the arm before pointing to the fitting room at the back. "Now, you better get back there before they're done. If you're lucky maybe Dora will convince Hermione to buy a nice pair of workout shorts."

Harry blushed, "But – How did you–"

"Dora told me," Remus replied, a wide grin on his face. "I should get going, I'll see you three at home," he said before heading out the door, moving quickly down the Alley to catch his target.

Harry moved to the fitting room, torn between disappointment and relief as he found his best friend trying on a simple Hogwarts robe. Tonks grinned at him as she saw the conflicting emotions battling on his face, a grin that quickly disappeared as she realized he was alone. "Where's Remus?" she whispered, careful to keep her voice low enough that the seamstress wouldn't overhear.

"Following Malfoy," he replied, quickly giving her an overview of what had happened in the other room. He couldn't help but notice the look of concern across her face as he told her where her boyfriend had gone. "He'll be fine Tonksie," he said, trying to reassure her.

She gave him a thin smile in return, "Of course he will," she said, schooling her face into an unreadable mask. Still, he could see that she was worried, the normal carefree Tonks he was used to seeing at home having vanished.

Half an hour later they were walking down the deserted alley towards the apparation point, Hermione's new robes having been shrunk and stuffed in her pocket with the rest of her school supplies. He couldn't help but feel tense, the silence of the alley weighing down on him, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He kept his hand on the wand in his pocket, noticing Tonks and Hermione both doing the same. It wasn't until they came into view of Ollivander's and saw more people that he began to relax, recognizing the pair sitting at the cafe beside the old wandmakers as the same pair that hadn't looked at them twice earlier. They had been joined by a middle-aged couple at some point, the four of them sitting around a table, shoulders hunched as they darted glances around the alley, searching for hidden dangers. He looked further down the street, seeing a trio of women gossiping. Harry felt his shoulders tense once again as his eyes darted back and forth between the two groups. Something about them wasn't right, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what.

They had almost pulled even with the first group when it hit him. All four of them were sitting with a cup of tea in front of them, but since they had come into view not a single one had taken a sip or even touched their cup. He pulled his wand from his pocket, about to warn the others when the shop in front of him exploded.

A/N- Well, sorry for the long break. I don't really have an excuse, other than I had a little writer's block. So what does everyone think? I was trying to show Harry and Hermione's friendship and kind of bring her into the group, but she isn't quite as easy going as the others(and isn't supposed to be).

Also I'm still up in the air about Tonks' animagus form and marauder name, so any suggestions would be welcome. She is a mammal with four feet and a tail and I'm going with the assumption that you can't be a magical animal, so keep that in mind. Honestly just the name suggestions would probably be most helpful.

Finally if anyone is interested in Betaing, I could use someone to bounce ideas off of, so PM me if you're interested.


End file.
